Title: Esoteric

Summary:

Disclaimer: I don't own Alias or any of the characters from the show.

Rating: PG-13

Chapter Six

When Rambaldi walked in to her room she found Sydney sitting quietly on the bed waiting for her. "I will have your child…at some point I may even be able to love it, but this has to work both ways. I won't run or harm our child…but you have to let me say goodbye to her. Please."

Rambaldi took out her cell phone and handed it to Sydney, she had no fear that she would inform the CIA of what was going on, she would never risk her lover's life and she knew this would be the only time she could talk to her one last time.

"Hey, it's me." Sydney talked in to the phone as Rambaldi stood by the door. "Yeah, it's true, it's already happened…it's ok sweetie. Everything's going to be ok. I just needed to tell you that I love you, I always will no matter what…good bye." Sydney hung up and lowered her gaze from Rambaldi as tears ran down her face.

Lauren sat in the CIA briefing room listening to Sydney as she spoke. "Sydney? Thank God. Sloane thinks he knows what Rambaldi's up to, she wants a child…already happened? Oh no, Sydney…I…" Lauren looked up at the people around her, Sydney's father, her oldest living friend and Lauren's husband. "I love you to Hun…Goodbye? Sydney…Sydney!"

The others looked to her expectantly. "Rambaldi has already impregnated Sydney. We're too late." Vaughn stared at her with confusion spread over his darkened features.

"Why did you say you loved her?" He asked. "The two of you can barely be in a room alone without snapping at each other…what's going on?" Lauren's eyes darted away from Vaughn's stare as she flushed. They had been found out, but it didn't matter. Sydney was gone. She had to face Vaughn's wrath and Jack's anger on her own.

"We…we were together." Lauren replied.

"Together!" Vaughn spat out the word as though it were poisonous. "You…you cheated on me with my ex…with another woman!" Vaughn tried to storm over to Lauren but was stopped as Jack's fist connected with his face, sending him sprawling to the floor.

"Agent Vaughn, the only time I have seen my daughter happy in the past few months since she returned has been when she and Lauren were together. You may have given up on her because you are weak or you don't feel she's worth it, but Lauren risked her marriage, her career and her life loving Sydney. She made Sydney happier than you ever could."

Lauren looked at Jack in surprise. "You knew?" He nodded. "How?"

"When Sydney was in high school I knew which boys were going to ask her out before she did. I always knew whom my daughter was involved with, either professionally or romantically. Nothing has changed." Jack explained. "I noticed how much more alive Sydney has been the past three months. When I confronted her she tried to hide it, but over time I noticed the interactions the two of you had at work and put two and two together. Sydney admitted it to me a few days ago."

Vaughn looked disgusted from his place on the floor. "How can you be so calm? Your daughter likes woman!" Jack looked down at him and sneered.

"My daughter loves Lauren. That is all that matters to me, that and getting my daughter back safe."

Lauren grinned. "I may be able to help with that. I had Marshall make a few alterations to my cell phone. Any call that lasts longer than thirty seconds can be traced. It's stored on Marshall's computer…I had a feeling Sydney would try and call."

"What are we waiting for people?" Kendall smiled and gave the order to assemble an assault team to retrieve Sydney once they had her location.

Dixon, Jack, Lauren, Weiss and a group of other agents made up the team, Vaughn had been refused clearance for the mission on the grounds that he could compromise the mission.

As soon as they got the location they scrambled into CIA helicopters in teams of four. Jack and Lauren were in one team. "Lauren." Jack said to get her attention. The anxious blonde looked over to him. "Once this is over, and we have Sydney back safely…I was wondering if the two of you would consider having dinner with me."

Lauren smiled and held on to his hand. "I'm sure Sydney would love that. We just need to get her back first." Jack nodded and placed his other hand on top of Lauren's.

"We'll get her back."

"Of course we will, no one takes my Sydney and gets away with it." Lauren smiled weakly. It felt good to be able to call Sydney hers in public.

As Rambaldi slept with Sydney beside her she was woken by a slight noise. Someone was in her house. She reached over to the bedside cabinet where she kept a holster with two guns in. although she was a woman of science and art she had learned long ago when her workshops had been destroyed by the authorities and her work sold off that if she was to survive she needed to be able to wield a weapon and fight without one.

The second she moved from the bed Sydney darted up. "What's going on?" Rambaldi held a finger to her lip to quieten her.

"There are people in my house…probably CIA. Just remember, if you hurt our child or try to leave me then Lauren Reed will die. Is that clear?" Sydney nodded. After Rambaldi left to find Sark and alert him Sydney snuck out of her room and crept through the vast corridors of the silent house.

The five teams of four split up led by the superior agents through out the large mansion. Jack and Lauren accompanied by two other agents silently made their way through the fourth floor. When they came to a fork in the corridor they split up in to twos with Jack leading one and Lauren leading the other.

As the agent who was accompanying Lauren went round a corner she stopped dead in her tracks as a gunshot echoed in the quiet hallway. The agent dropped down in front of her and Lauren scrambled in to the safety of a nearby room. She closed the door over so that it was open an inch and watched as Sark bent down to take the man's pulse.

He stood up and moved on past the door to find Rambaldi and inform her that he'd shot an intruder who looked like he was CIA. As Lauren was about to leave the room she felt her gun being pulled from it's holster and pushed against the back of her temple. "Who do you work for?" She heard a voice whisper in her ear and sighed a breath of relief as she slowly raised her hands to the ski mask, which covered her head.

When she pulled it off she felt the gun being removed from her skull and Sydney's arms wrapped around her. "You shouldn't be here." She scorned but continued to hold her tightly. "If I leave or harm out child she will kill you…I can't let that happen."

"What if she couldn't find us?" Lauren asked as she turned to face her lover.

"The CIA can't protect us Lauren…"

"We don't need the CIA." Lauren interrupted. "Michael knows now, I think he hates us, but that means there's nothing keeping us back. We could run and hide from Rambaldi somewhere she could never find us."

Sydney's gaze travelled down to her stomach. "In three months I'm going to have her and mine…and Sark's child. I don't know what she wants a child for but I doubt it will be a little angel."

Lauren smiled as she placed a kiss on Sydney's lips, reclaiming what was hers. "If I can handle its mother I can handle anything." When Jack arrived back at the corridor Lauren had been in he found the dead agent, his own partner had been killed and Jack had been shot in the arm, but there was no sign of Lauren.

He raised his gun as a door opened quietly to his left and sighed as he found Sydney and Lauren emerging from it. "Dad." Sydney whispered and embraced him.

"We have to go. The others are waiting at the choppers." He led Sydney and Lauren to the roof where two helicopters were waiting for the remaining agents.

Sydney stopped as they reached the chopper. "Dad. If I go with you then I'm putting everyone in danger, including Lauren…I can't lose her." Jack nodded in understanding.

"You know how to fly a helicopter." He signalled for the pilot of one to get in the other helicopter and hugged his daughter before following the pilot.

Lauren held Sydney's hand as they sat in the chopper and watched the others leave. They were leaving behind their families and friends and all of their past, but they had no other choice. "I love you." Sydney said before they took off. "I'm so sorry that this is happening, I'm taking you away from everyone you care about…" Lauren silenced her with a kiss and shook her head.

"There's no where else I'd rather be than with you…even if that means raising someone else's child, I would do anything for you Sydney. I love you and Rambaldi will never hurt you again."