BLISSFUL IGNORANCE

Eyghon

Chapter 2: It's personal

Irina was about to reply but shut her mouth when she realised she didn't know what to say. 'I'm your mother' just wouldn't do. It would send Sydney running the other way. No one could take well such news. She needed a plan of action. She needed to start from the beginning. That was a good plan.

"I can help you recover your memory."

Sydney looked at her, the biscuits dangling between her fingers, mouth slightly open. "You a doctor?" She asked, sceptical.

Irina wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the question but held off, recalling Sydney's startled reaction a few minutes before. "No. But your amnesia is not a medical condition."

"It's not?"

"No and I think I can fix it. That's why I took you. I tried to tell your father but he wouldn't listen. You were right when you said he hated me."

Sydney nodded mutely. "Don't take it wrong but…I don't believe a thing of what you said. Except for the hating part. I saw lots of doctors, they ran tests, cat scans…I have pills to take and stuff…"

"And yet it's been six weeks and you still can't remember a thing, not even the slightest information about yourself," interrupted Irina, not at all thrown back by the rebuff.

"So? It takes time," stubbornly contradicted Sydney.

"Fine, believe what you want, but at least let me finish my story."

Sydney settled back in her seat, the Oreo lying on the table, forgotten. She felt uneasy toward the woman. Sometimes she was all smiles and gentle, other times something else crept in beside the warm and friendly surface. It was as if she was trying to put on a nice appearance for Sydney's benefit, but sometimes it felt natural. Creepy, really. "Whatever." She shrugged again, and was practically certain she saw the older woman twitch in annoyance. She could not remember a thing about herself but she sure could read other people.

Irina noticed Sydney's searching glare. She was being analysed from head to toe but didn't mind. It was actually quite entertaining to see Sydney trying to read her, see what was underneath the surface.

She needed to screen what to tell or not to tell Sydney about the 'truth' she had intended to give her. She could not mention Rambaldi. It was common knowledge Sydney hated the man for all she had been put through because of him. Talking about him to the Sydney who was facing her would either send her away screaming or make her roll on the floor laughing about Irina believing the old crackpot. Rambaldi was out then.

"You were infected with a substance that wiped clean the part of your brain that stores memory. Science can't help understand what that substance was, how it affected you, and let alone find a cure to it."

This left Sydney speechless. "I don't get it. Even if it's true, how did I get infected?"

"What did your father tell you about your…profession?"

Sydney hesitated but guessed Irina would not ask the question if she did not already knew the answer, as she had done until now. "I was a CIA agent."

"Indeed. Prior to your amnesia, you were captured and held several days by unknown criminals. I think they injected you with the substance I mentioned."

"Makes sense. Jack did say something about me missing for a few days. But why? Why would people want to erase someone's memory?"

Irina chose her words carefully. Once 'cured', Sydney would still remember everything that had happened to her since she awoke in the hospital seven weeks ago. She would probably repeat everything she would learn from her mother to the CIA. It was a delicate question but Sydney didn't need to know the specifics. Just enough to believe what she was being told. "I couldn't get in touch with those people, so I can only make assumptions. I think your contamination was unintentional. They thought you were someone else, someone supposed to be able to handle the fluid."

What she presented to Sydney as a theory was most likely what had happened. Sydney had been released not because she was useless to the people that had her, but because she was not who they had hoped she would be. They had understood that she was not the Passenger after injecting her with the Rambaldi fluid and had then correctly deduced from the effects the fluid had on her that she was instead the Chosen One. They could not kill the Chosen One or it would ruin Rambaldi's prophecies so they had set her free and had started looking for the Passenger again.

"So you're saying all this was a freak accident?"

"Yes, that's one way to put it," replied Irina, glad Sydney didn't seem to want to argue.

"It's plausible I guess. And you're saying you have the cure?"

"Not exactly. It's a more complicated matter. Once we land, I'll bring you to one of my facilities and have some tests run on you…"

Sydney looked at her sharply and tensed, voice quivering. "You want to use me like some lab rat?"

"No!" Hurriedly reassured Irina. "Nothing like that! I promise." It didn't seem to reassure Sydney one bit, so a few minutes later, her mother added some more information. "I don't know much about the cure, only it's a mix of several ingredients. The original fluid and your blood must be mixed for starters. After that, nobody knows what else is necessary yet. That's why we need information, about you, on how the fluid affected you in the first place. Studying you will provide those missing information." Before Sydney could argue that she was not a lab experiment, Irina reached out for her hands. "I will stay with you the whole time. I won't let them do anything to hurt you. If you don't like something, you will just tell me and we will talk about it and try to find a way around it. If it becomes painful, we can stop at anytime. You just say the word. There is no reason for you not to be able to live the way you are now."

Sydney nodded at last, finding Irina's conditions fair enough. Despite what the woman wanted her to believe though, Sydney had no choice. She had seen Irina take out her gun in the garden. The woman kidnapped her. She would make her do whatever she wanted, no matter how painful it would be.

A chauffeured Mercedes was waiting for them at whatever airport they had landed at. Irina asked Sydney to get in the backseat and climbed in after her. A black SUV full of what Sydney assumed were bodyguards followed them to a magnificent house a little off the city.

Irina showed Sydney to her room and told her to get comfortable. She explained they would start the tests in the morning and that Sydney should rest.

The next morning, a bleary-eyed Sydney made her way to the kitchen, following the smell of fresh coffee. She loved coffee. Her friends had told her she was a coffee addict but she had known the first time she had tasted it that she loved it. The first time since her loss of memory that is.

"Hi," she mumbled, awkwardly standing in the doorway.

"Hello, take a seat," greeted Irina, pointing to the kitchen's counter on with two place settings. "Tea or coffee?" she asked, her knowledge of her daughter's tastes of today limited. Knowing about the Oreos was one thing, but she didn't know about 'grown up things' such as hot drinks. Sydney drank hot chocolate when she was six years old as coffee was not allowed.

"Coffee please."

"Black, strong, no sugar?" Hazarded Irina, referring to the way she herself took her coffee.

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Waffles, pancakes or French toasts?"

"Whatever you're making will be fine. Orange juice?"

"Help yourself. It's in there." She pointed at the refrigerator.

"Got it. Want some too?" Sydney frowned, shocked by the easiness with which she had just asked the woman who had basically kidnapped her if she wanted some orange juice. But then again, as Irina had said, it's not like she had hurt her or even threatened to hurt her. On the contrary, oddly enough she had been a rather comforting captor.

"Yes please. Here we go," she added as she flipped a French toast on each of their plates.

"Can I ask you something," Sydney blurted out before she could stop herself. Even though she didn't feel her life was in danger with Irina, she was still worried about what the woman wanted with her. It was a little odd that a perfect stranger, a criminal, a terrorist even, had taken the risk to kidnap the daughter of a CIA agent only to help her. Sydney would have slapped herself for not realising it the previous day. Something was just wrong with this picture.

"Of course, go ahead," prompted Irina, wondering if Sydney would finally pop 'the' question.

"Why in hell would you take such risks to get to me only to help me when you said yourself you hate my father? I mean, what's your interest in this, what do you get?"

Irina stopped chewing and swallowed directly. Finally. She hadn't dared tell who she was to Sydney until now because she felt it had to come from Sydney. She would certainly not like the answer, not believe it, but there was more chance for Irina to convince her if she asked the question herself.

"I'm doing this because I have a personal interest in you, you could say."

"A personal interest? How so ?"

"There's no easy way to say this, and I know you won't believe me, but please, at least wait until I'm done before interrupting me, alright?"

"Yeah," groaned Sydney, unconsciously checking the possible exits from the kitchen. She had an uneasy feeling, as she knew Irina was about to pull some funny business. She would not just sit there and take it if she could do otherwise. The place was crawling with bodyguards but it was worth a shot.

"No need to get all jumpy Sydney."

The young woman blushed, feeling as if Irina could read her every thought. "Whatever. Just say it."

Irina frowned. Had Sydney not believed her in the plane? She thought she had gotten through to her but apparently, Jack's stories were well embedded in her daughter's head. Knowing she thought so little of her even though she didn't know her stung but Irina could live with it. However, she would not let Sydney believe one more second she was about to do unspeakable things to her

"That's enough!" She scolded, slamming her palm on the counter, causing Sydney to lift her eyes at her in shock. "You have to see past what your father told you about me. I am tired of hearing you saying I am a horrible, unfeeling woman!"

"I didn't…" meekly protested Sydney, a little taken back by the woman's vehemence.

"Yes you did, silly girl. I'm doing everything I can to help you and you keep throwing it back in my face without knowing the facts."

"Sorry," mumbled Sydney, already retreating in embarrassment.

Irina had hoped for such reaction. She was tired of seeing Sydney as a shell of her former self. She wanted her daughter back. The one that could hate her and love her at the same time. The one she held at gunpoint and who still stood up to her. The one she had shot and who had shot her in return.

"Stop apologizing and quivering at everything I say," scolded Irina coldly. Suddenly grabbing Sydney's wrist, she dragged her toward the living room and through the French doors. "Come with me." The kitchen was not a suitable place to talk. All those knifes lying around, the little space with only one exit…too much pressure.

Sydney did try to free her arm from Irina's grasp, pleasing her mother without knowing it. Finally, Sydney was fighting back, getting angry. She let go once they were a fair distance away from the house. Sydney rubbed her sore wrist and looked around, noticing they were on a beach.

"I have a personal interest in you because I was married to your father."

"What?" Sydney's head snapped up in bewilderment. "The only woman my father ever married was my mother," she snapped back, checking the detailed information about her family she had been given. She took advantage of being outside to take a few steps back from the woman.

"My point EXACTLY," coolly replied Irina, watching for her daughter's reaction. She had chosen not to say who she was directly. Sydney would be more incline to believe her if she was learning the facts herself.

Sydney was speechless. Then, after a few minutes, when the shock had passed, it hit her. How could she have not realised it? How could she have been so stupid as to not see? Her eyes had gone to her feet the second Irina's words had sunk in. She shook her head from side to side. Slowly. Once. Twice. It didn't make any sense but it did so much at the same time.

Turning, she started running. Away from the woman, the house, her mother. Her everything.

Irina saw her before Sydney probably knew what she would do. She let her take off. There was nothing for miles around. Sydney was not trying to 'escape' per se. All she was trying to do was escape her mother, but not in the physical sense of the word.

They needed to begin the tests soon but Irina decided to give Sydney some time and space. A guard walked to her, waiting for her orders. "Keep an eye on her, but stay away. Don't disturb her; don't let her see you. Just make sure she doesn't get lost in the forest."

The man nodded and scurried off to catch up with Sydney.

TBC