Chapter Thirty Eight
"You're still in love with her aren't you." It was more of an accusation than a question.
"Excuse me?"
"You're still in love with Irina," Kat repeated shaking her head and turned over a photograph to show him. It was an older one of him and Laura. One he usually kept locked up in his desk, one of the few he'd just never been able to throw away. They were both smiling happily, their arms around each other. They were the very essence of a young couple in love.
"Kat-"
"I didn't realize before but now I do, now it makes sense. That's why you accept her faults so easily. You've forgiven her."
"I've not forgiven her Katarina, don't judge what you do not know, nor do you understand."
"She still loves you too," Kat said softly and stood up. She rounded the desk still holding the photograph in her hand. "She's still in love with you," she laughed bitterly.
"You're wrong."
"No," she shook her head sadly. "I'm not."
"Kat-"
"From the moment I met you I thought you were familiar. Your eyes, your face, there was something I recognized but I didn't know you." Kat studied his mannerisms trying to judge how he was reacting to the intrusion upon his personal life but as always Jack Bristow gave nothing away. "I thought maybe it was because you were Sydney's father, and then everything happened and I forgot. But I remember now. I've seen this picture before."
Jack looked at her curiously waiting for her to continue.
"When I was little I was playing in my mom's room and I found the photograph hidden somewhere. She must have freaked. She made me promise never to tell anyone about it. I must have been three nearly four," her voice shook slightly as she replayed the past events in her mind. "I asked her about the man in the picture. She told me he was someone special, someone who was very special to her and that one day I would get to meet him. I remember looking at that photograph for hours. Papa wasn't around, I'm remembering more now," she sighed. "He wasn't around much at all in that year before he supposedly died. I'd sneak in and find the photograph. I used to pretend that man was my father, I missed him. I used to talk to him and pretend he was Papa. He looked like he really loved her." Kat handed the photograph to him. "What was so special about this day?" she asked.
"She has the same one?"
"Probably still does."
Jack walked to his desk and looked at the photo once more before he slipped it back into the drawer and locked it. "It was our anniversary," he explained. "Ten years since the day we met. A few weeks before Laura died."
"So are you?"
"Stop trying to analyze me," Jack sat down on the pullout. "Let me see your arm."
Reluctantly she obeyed and sat next to him, pulling up her sleeve. "Either you do or you don't, it really is not that difficult-Oww! Jack!"
"Stop baiting me," he said through clenched teeth as he wound the gauze tightly around the burn on her arm; a little tighter than it should be. "My personal life is of no concern to you."
"Alright," she jerked her arm away. "Could you loosen up a bit?"
Jack said nothing but pulled her arm back and unwound the bandage before redoing it looser. They sat in silence as Jack changed the bandages on her back and leg before tending to the smaller ones on her face.
"Did you see Carrie and Marshall's baby?" Kat tried to make small talk with him as he dabbed an alcohol wipe at a large cut on her cheekbone.
"No," Jack shook his head. "A girl was it?"
"Yeah," Kat held her arm out as Jack secured a tensor bandage around her wrist to stabilize it while she slept. "They named her Kate after me. I can't imagine why," she laughed lightly.
"Sydney told me." He finished pinning the bandage before looking at her. "She said they asked you to be the baby's godmother but you said no, why?"
Kat shrugged. "I might not be around, that would be kind of a waste of a godparent. I could die tomorrow and she'd have never even known me."
"The same could happen to any of us, so why should you be any different?" Jack stopped what he was doing. "Don't stop living and making plans for your future," he said his voice full of the authority and knowledge that made up Jack Bristow. "If you do, than they've won and everything that you've worked, everything that you have fought for has been lost. They've succeeded in gaining power you. Over your actions, over your decisions."
She was surprised at his words and mentally analyzed them but she could find no hidden meaning or secret flaw. He seemed to be sincere. "You think I should?"
"It's your decision." He applied the last Band-Aid to her temple. "Would your hesitation have anything to do with Joshua?" Her silence was her answer. "He's safe, with parents who love him, who will take care of him."
"And that doesn't bother you?" she asked. "That you will never know your grandson?"
"There will be other children Katarina," Jack began.
"Come on Jack, I know you've read my medical files. I can't have any more children," her voice shook and she looked away from him blinking back tears.
"You don't know-"
"Yes I do Jack. Too much damage. You've seen the medical report. The doctor couldn't even understand how I got pregnant in the first place. Too much damage means no kids. Ever-"
"You're seventeen Kat, you're young," Jack stood and gathered the medical supplies. "There are plenty of medical advancements to come should you decide you want children in the future it might be possible. However I really am not interested in becoming a grandfather any time soon. Now you should get some rest."
Kat nodded climbed under the covers. "Thanks."
Jack turned the light off. "Good night Katy."
"I still don't understand," her voice came out of the dark. "I just don't understand how you could love a woman like that."
"I did love her," Jack said softly. "I loved Laura Bristow. But my love for your mother ended over twenty years ago. I don't want to discuss this again now go to sleep."
He could hear her sigh and moan quietly as she turned over, her body protesting against the painful movements before he heard a faint whisper, "night Jack."
~ ~ ~
"Mountaineer, Boyscout, you are cleared for entry."
Sydney adjusted her com link and turned to Vaughn. "Let's go."
In order to gain access to the safety deposit box, which Alexander Khasinau had rented in Cairo several years before he died, Sydney and Vaughn were posing as a couple interested in the bank's services. But before they would commit to dealing with Cairo international they would need to tour the facilities and view the bank's vaults. The plan was to gas the bank manager and take his security card while Weiss would hack into the bank's mainframe and determine which box was his. Hopefully it would contain scroll 47 and the key to the Contessa.
Vaughn and Sydney entered the bank. He wore a dark suit and glasses and she wore a maroon business suit, her hair tucked under a short blond wig.
"Madam et Monsieur Riviere," Vaughn introduced them to the secretary in a flawless French accent. "We have an appointment with Monsieur Delgata."
"Yes," the secretary smiled politely. "He's expecting you." She paged him and the bank manager appeared moments later. He greeted them warmly in a thick Arabic accent. Sydney and Vaughn followed him as he began the tour of the bank's facilities.
Sydney couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. He was a far cry from the usual thugs they had to deal with on missions and in a few minutes the poor man would be gassed and wouldn't wake up for over an hour; when he did wake he'd have one hell of a headache. They entered into his office and Vaughn sprayed the gas in front of his face. Sydney caught the bank manager and slowly lowered him to the ground. Vaughn snatched his access card and waited until Weiss gave them the all clear before they left his office and made their way down the back stairwells to the room with the safety deposit boxes.
Weiss had looped the bank's security cameras so the guards had no idea what was going on. Sydney and Vaughn used the bank managers access card to enter the vault room while Weiss observed the security cameras.
"What's the box number?" Sydney asked.
"You're not gonna believe this," Weiss laughed.
"What?"
"It's 47."
There was silence on the other end.
"I said its box 47," he repeated.
"Sick S.O.B.," Sydney muttered under her breath. Of course Khasinau would reference Rambaldi and his odd obsession with the number 47.
"I've got it," Vaughn found the box and pulled it down sitting it on the table. The two stared at each other for a few moments in silence. All they had to do was open the box and all their questions regarding The Contessa could be answered.
~ ~ ~
"Daddy!"
He'd been sleeping when her screams jarred him awake. Instinctively he reached for the gun he kept in the drawer in his nightstand.
He entered her room and turned on the small desk light remembering that Agent Weiss had stopped him from turning on the full light when they were in Spain. She was twisting on the bed. The blankets were kicked in a pool at her feet and the sheets were soaked with sweat.
He hated listening to her screams. They were torturous. Her words didn't make sense. Fragmented sounds cut off by screams, sobs, and cries from her nightmare. What he could understand were her cries for "Daddy."
"Katy," Jack set the gun on the floor and sat on the edge of the pullout. He took her arms pinning them down at her sides in an attempt to stop her from thrashing and injuring herself further. "Wake up, its just a nightmare." She didn't respond. Her eyes were shut tight, her pillow soaked with tears. "It's just a dream Katy," he shook her shoulder gently. "You need to wake up."
"Daddy, no," she screamed.
"Katy! Wake up!"
"Sydney please no," she sobbed.
"Katy!"
"Daddy!" she bolted upright gasping for breath.
"I'm right here," Jack took her in his arms despite her initial protests as she tried to figure out where she was. "You're alright, it was just a dream." He rubbed her back lightly attempting to soothe her cries.
"You were dead," she cried her voice muffled into his shirt.
"You're alright sweetheart, it was just a dream."
"And Sydney," she looked up at him tearfully. "I-I did it."
"It was just a nightmare," Jack pushed aside the soaked sheet and lifted her into his arms. "Come on, you can't sleep here."
"There was so much blood and I did it," she said hoarsely as Jack set her down on the bed in his room. "I did it," her voice trembled, "I killed you."
Jack masked his surprise and wrapped his arms around her. "You're safe sweetheart," he whispered tucking her head against his chest. He rubbed her back once more trying to get her to stop crying and rocked her gently. "It was just a nightmare. I'm fine, Sydney's fine, everything will be alright."
"But it was so real."
"I know." Jack held her for several more minutes but she still would not settle and he took a risk.
"Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby..."
~ ~ ~
Vaughn and Sydney both eyed the box.
"Mountaineer, Boyscout what is your status?" Lindsey repeated through the com links.
"We have the box," Sydney let out the breath she'd been holding. "We're opening it."
Vaughn took out a penknife laser and cut through the hinges on the box. He removed the lid and Sydney pulled out a file. She opened it and nearly felt her stomach drop, her hopes singed.
"Negative on the scroll," Vaughn told Lindsey.
"What's in there?" Lindsey asked.
"It's just papers," Sydney sighed. "Random letters, probably coding but definitely not Rambaldi."
"Alright, grab the papers and get home." Kendall took his headset off and Lindsey did the same. Hopefully the papers Sydney and Vaughn had recovered, were indeed encoded and would provide some clue as to the whereabouts of scroll 47.
Sydney slipped the papers into the false bottom of Vaughn's briefcase and then slammed it closed.
"Damn it!"
"You're still in love with her aren't you." It was more of an accusation than a question.
"Excuse me?"
"You're still in love with Irina," Kat repeated shaking her head and turned over a photograph to show him. It was an older one of him and Laura. One he usually kept locked up in his desk, one of the few he'd just never been able to throw away. They were both smiling happily, their arms around each other. They were the very essence of a young couple in love.
"Kat-"
"I didn't realize before but now I do, now it makes sense. That's why you accept her faults so easily. You've forgiven her."
"I've not forgiven her Katarina, don't judge what you do not know, nor do you understand."
"She still loves you too," Kat said softly and stood up. She rounded the desk still holding the photograph in her hand. "She's still in love with you," she laughed bitterly.
"You're wrong."
"No," she shook her head sadly. "I'm not."
"Kat-"
"From the moment I met you I thought you were familiar. Your eyes, your face, there was something I recognized but I didn't know you." Kat studied his mannerisms trying to judge how he was reacting to the intrusion upon his personal life but as always Jack Bristow gave nothing away. "I thought maybe it was because you were Sydney's father, and then everything happened and I forgot. But I remember now. I've seen this picture before."
Jack looked at her curiously waiting for her to continue.
"When I was little I was playing in my mom's room and I found the photograph hidden somewhere. She must have freaked. She made me promise never to tell anyone about it. I must have been three nearly four," her voice shook slightly as she replayed the past events in her mind. "I asked her about the man in the picture. She told me he was someone special, someone who was very special to her and that one day I would get to meet him. I remember looking at that photograph for hours. Papa wasn't around, I'm remembering more now," she sighed. "He wasn't around much at all in that year before he supposedly died. I'd sneak in and find the photograph. I used to pretend that man was my father, I missed him. I used to talk to him and pretend he was Papa. He looked like he really loved her." Kat handed the photograph to him. "What was so special about this day?" she asked.
"She has the same one?"
"Probably still does."
Jack walked to his desk and looked at the photo once more before he slipped it back into the drawer and locked it. "It was our anniversary," he explained. "Ten years since the day we met. A few weeks before Laura died."
"So are you?"
"Stop trying to analyze me," Jack sat down on the pullout. "Let me see your arm."
Reluctantly she obeyed and sat next to him, pulling up her sleeve. "Either you do or you don't, it really is not that difficult-Oww! Jack!"
"Stop baiting me," he said through clenched teeth as he wound the gauze tightly around the burn on her arm; a little tighter than it should be. "My personal life is of no concern to you."
"Alright," she jerked her arm away. "Could you loosen up a bit?"
Jack said nothing but pulled her arm back and unwound the bandage before redoing it looser. They sat in silence as Jack changed the bandages on her back and leg before tending to the smaller ones on her face.
"Did you see Carrie and Marshall's baby?" Kat tried to make small talk with him as he dabbed an alcohol wipe at a large cut on her cheekbone.
"No," Jack shook his head. "A girl was it?"
"Yeah," Kat held her arm out as Jack secured a tensor bandage around her wrist to stabilize it while she slept. "They named her Kate after me. I can't imagine why," she laughed lightly.
"Sydney told me." He finished pinning the bandage before looking at her. "She said they asked you to be the baby's godmother but you said no, why?"
Kat shrugged. "I might not be around, that would be kind of a waste of a godparent. I could die tomorrow and she'd have never even known me."
"The same could happen to any of us, so why should you be any different?" Jack stopped what he was doing. "Don't stop living and making plans for your future," he said his voice full of the authority and knowledge that made up Jack Bristow. "If you do, than they've won and everything that you've worked, everything that you have fought for has been lost. They've succeeded in gaining power you. Over your actions, over your decisions."
She was surprised at his words and mentally analyzed them but she could find no hidden meaning or secret flaw. He seemed to be sincere. "You think I should?"
"It's your decision." He applied the last Band-Aid to her temple. "Would your hesitation have anything to do with Joshua?" Her silence was her answer. "He's safe, with parents who love him, who will take care of him."
"And that doesn't bother you?" she asked. "That you will never know your grandson?"
"There will be other children Katarina," Jack began.
"Come on Jack, I know you've read my medical files. I can't have any more children," her voice shook and she looked away from him blinking back tears.
"You don't know-"
"Yes I do Jack. Too much damage. You've seen the medical report. The doctor couldn't even understand how I got pregnant in the first place. Too much damage means no kids. Ever-"
"You're seventeen Kat, you're young," Jack stood and gathered the medical supplies. "There are plenty of medical advancements to come should you decide you want children in the future it might be possible. However I really am not interested in becoming a grandfather any time soon. Now you should get some rest."
Kat nodded climbed under the covers. "Thanks."
Jack turned the light off. "Good night Katy."
"I still don't understand," her voice came out of the dark. "I just don't understand how you could love a woman like that."
"I did love her," Jack said softly. "I loved Laura Bristow. But my love for your mother ended over twenty years ago. I don't want to discuss this again now go to sleep."
He could hear her sigh and moan quietly as she turned over, her body protesting against the painful movements before he heard a faint whisper, "night Jack."
~ ~ ~
"Mountaineer, Boyscout, you are cleared for entry."
Sydney adjusted her com link and turned to Vaughn. "Let's go."
In order to gain access to the safety deposit box, which Alexander Khasinau had rented in Cairo several years before he died, Sydney and Vaughn were posing as a couple interested in the bank's services. But before they would commit to dealing with Cairo international they would need to tour the facilities and view the bank's vaults. The plan was to gas the bank manager and take his security card while Weiss would hack into the bank's mainframe and determine which box was his. Hopefully it would contain scroll 47 and the key to the Contessa.
Vaughn and Sydney entered the bank. He wore a dark suit and glasses and she wore a maroon business suit, her hair tucked under a short blond wig.
"Madam et Monsieur Riviere," Vaughn introduced them to the secretary in a flawless French accent. "We have an appointment with Monsieur Delgata."
"Yes," the secretary smiled politely. "He's expecting you." She paged him and the bank manager appeared moments later. He greeted them warmly in a thick Arabic accent. Sydney and Vaughn followed him as he began the tour of the bank's facilities.
Sydney couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. He was a far cry from the usual thugs they had to deal with on missions and in a few minutes the poor man would be gassed and wouldn't wake up for over an hour; when he did wake he'd have one hell of a headache. They entered into his office and Vaughn sprayed the gas in front of his face. Sydney caught the bank manager and slowly lowered him to the ground. Vaughn snatched his access card and waited until Weiss gave them the all clear before they left his office and made their way down the back stairwells to the room with the safety deposit boxes.
Weiss had looped the bank's security cameras so the guards had no idea what was going on. Sydney and Vaughn used the bank managers access card to enter the vault room while Weiss observed the security cameras.
"What's the box number?" Sydney asked.
"You're not gonna believe this," Weiss laughed.
"What?"
"It's 47."
There was silence on the other end.
"I said its box 47," he repeated.
"Sick S.O.B.," Sydney muttered under her breath. Of course Khasinau would reference Rambaldi and his odd obsession with the number 47.
"I've got it," Vaughn found the box and pulled it down sitting it on the table. The two stared at each other for a few moments in silence. All they had to do was open the box and all their questions regarding The Contessa could be answered.
~ ~ ~
"Daddy!"
He'd been sleeping when her screams jarred him awake. Instinctively he reached for the gun he kept in the drawer in his nightstand.
He entered her room and turned on the small desk light remembering that Agent Weiss had stopped him from turning on the full light when they were in Spain. She was twisting on the bed. The blankets were kicked in a pool at her feet and the sheets were soaked with sweat.
He hated listening to her screams. They were torturous. Her words didn't make sense. Fragmented sounds cut off by screams, sobs, and cries from her nightmare. What he could understand were her cries for "Daddy."
"Katy," Jack set the gun on the floor and sat on the edge of the pullout. He took her arms pinning them down at her sides in an attempt to stop her from thrashing and injuring herself further. "Wake up, its just a nightmare." She didn't respond. Her eyes were shut tight, her pillow soaked with tears. "It's just a dream Katy," he shook her shoulder gently. "You need to wake up."
"Daddy, no," she screamed.
"Katy! Wake up!"
"Sydney please no," she sobbed.
"Katy!"
"Daddy!" she bolted upright gasping for breath.
"I'm right here," Jack took her in his arms despite her initial protests as she tried to figure out where she was. "You're alright, it was just a dream." He rubbed her back lightly attempting to soothe her cries.
"You were dead," she cried her voice muffled into his shirt.
"You're alright sweetheart, it was just a dream."
"And Sydney," she looked up at him tearfully. "I-I did it."
"It was just a nightmare," Jack pushed aside the soaked sheet and lifted her into his arms. "Come on, you can't sleep here."
"There was so much blood and I did it," she said hoarsely as Jack set her down on the bed in his room. "I did it," her voice trembled, "I killed you."
Jack masked his surprise and wrapped his arms around her. "You're safe sweetheart," he whispered tucking her head against his chest. He rubbed her back once more trying to get her to stop crying and rocked her gently. "It was just a nightmare. I'm fine, Sydney's fine, everything will be alright."
"But it was so real."
"I know." Jack held her for several more minutes but she still would not settle and he took a risk.
"Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby..."
~ ~ ~
Vaughn and Sydney both eyed the box.
"Mountaineer, Boyscout what is your status?" Lindsey repeated through the com links.
"We have the box," Sydney let out the breath she'd been holding. "We're opening it."
Vaughn took out a penknife laser and cut through the hinges on the box. He removed the lid and Sydney pulled out a file. She opened it and nearly felt her stomach drop, her hopes singed.
"Negative on the scroll," Vaughn told Lindsey.
"What's in there?" Lindsey asked.
"It's just papers," Sydney sighed. "Random letters, probably coding but definitely not Rambaldi."
"Alright, grab the papers and get home." Kendall took his headset off and Lindsey did the same. Hopefully the papers Sydney and Vaughn had recovered, were indeed encoded and would provide some clue as to the whereabouts of scroll 47.
Sydney slipped the papers into the false bottom of Vaughn's briefcase and then slammed it closed.
"Damn it!"