"I can't stop pacing," Sydney said, throwing her hands into the air. She chanced a small glance out the window and was not surprised to see no movement at all outside. "Why am I so nervous?"
"Because you're about to do the impossible?" Sark volunteered from his position holding his daughter on the couch. He was half ignoring his wife, knowing that she just needed to reason a few things out aloud and then would return to her normal self.
"It is impossible, isn't it? I mean, where did I come off thinking this was going to work?"
Sark almost laughed. He knew exactly where she was coming from. Sydney had a penchant for achieving the unachievable. This situation, though, it might be pushing the envelope.
Michael and Lauren Vaughn were currently on their way to the safe house with their son Tyler sleeping in the backseat. Like Sydney had instructed, they waited until the dead of night to leave their house. What they hadn't been told was the small fact that Sydney expected them to live with her husband and daughter in this obscure cabin right outside Los Angeles. Not exactly a detail she should have left out, in his opinion.
"They'll deal with it once you explain," he said finally.
"I don't know how to explain." She was about to go on when she heard the sounds of a car door opening. Her body automatically froze up. It suddenly occurred to her that she wasn't ready for this. There hadn't been enough time to prepare.
Sark just sat bouncing Hope a little in an effort to get her to giggle at him. He wasn't concerned with Michael Vaughn. The man always seemed to step in line when it came to Sydney. And this new addition to his life was so fascinating that nothing could tear his attention away from her.
It was this sight that Vaughn first saw when he carried his sleeping son through the front door. "Hello," he said, not knowing what else to do.
"Go put Tyler to sleep. I gave him the second bedroom on the left upstairs. I'll explain when he's all settled," Sydney said. She turned to her husband. "I think you should go try to get Hope to go to sleep in her room, too, Julian."
Knowing that now was not the time to argue, he simply nodded and stood up to follow her suggestion. When he passed by her side, he leaned in to whisper, "Don't think I don't know that you're trying to get rid of me."
Sydney waited patiently for Vaughn to return in the living room with Lauren, who had been trailing behind her husband. "I'm glad you trusted me enough to show up," Sydney said after a moment of silence.
"We discussed if we should first," Lauren answered honestly. "We weren't sure if we could believe you. I mean, the idea of Irina working legitimately for the US government and employing her daughter and the man she raised as a son thereby thrusting the two people who mean the most to her into danger on a daily basis? Come on. That's not exactly believable."
"You have a point. Sometimes I wake up and don't even believe it myself."
They lapsed into silence again until Vaughn came back into the room. "So, what are you doing here with your daughter?"
Sydney decided to go for the ripping-the-band-aid-off-in-one-big-thrust approach. "We're going to be living in the safe house with you."
"We as if you, Sark, and Hope?" Lauren asked.
"Yes. We're really not sure what to do with Tyler and Hope until we've realized more about this Rambaldi prophecy. They both need protection, and it will be easier to do if there are four of us here."
"A good point," Vaughn said. "But do you actually believe that Julian Lazarey and I can live in peace under the same roof?"
"You're going to have to," Lauren interjected before Sydney could respond. "We don't have any other choice. We need to keep Tyler safe. If Sydney thinks this is the best option, then it must be."Vaughn nodded, agreeing with his wife's logic. He would demand more explanation later when he wasn't so confused. "Aren't you worried that keeping Tyler and Hope in the same place is going to hurt the situation?"
"I've worried about that in a hundred different ways. The worst being that I'm afraid that we might just be feeding into what the prophecy wants. If it means something bad will happen when the children of the prophecy meet, having them live together will speed up the process."
"Then wouldn't the wise decision be to keep them apart?" Lauren asked.
Vaughn placed his hand on his wife's arm. "I think that Sydney's decided the four of us together should be able to keep both children safe. But I can't keep myself from thinking that we're giving our enemies a two-for-one deal on the kidnapping issue."
"No one will be kidnapping my daughter anytime soon," Sark said from the doorway. "And since keeping her safe involves keeping your son safe, no one will be touching him either."
He walked into a room and took a seat on the arm of Sydney's chair. It was a small habit of his to keep himself in a position that allows a full scan of the room at all times. "What do we do now?" he asked.
"Yeah," Lauren turned to Sydney. "We can't just sit here twiddling our thumbs."
"We're not," Sydney explained. "The four of us are going to work as quickly as we can from this location to figure out why Rambaldi is messing with our lives once more."
"Shouldn't that be hard?" Vaughn said, looking at his surroundings. "This isn't exactly the Rotunda."
"It's better," Sydney said with a smirk. "This place is one of my father's personal safehouses. He stocked it himself personally."
"Where do we start first?" Lauren asked, sighing loudly.
"We start with studying the actual wording of the prophecy. We need to figure out first what he meant by confrontation. I want to know if this is something we should be preventing or encouraging. I mean, we're not even sure if Rambaldi is working against us."
Sark laughed lightly and, when his wife sent him a familiar look, he went on to explain. "You talk of Rambaldi as if he is currently alive to make your life hell."
"It feels like he is," Sydney shot back.
"But he's not alive. He died centuries ago. Granted he left a rather horrible plan behind in terms of your life. But he's not around. Whatever he planned can be stopped because he's not here to make sure it goes off without a hitch."
Lauren stood up suddenly. "Enough talking. Let's get this started so we can return to our normal lives as quickly as possible."
"There's a computer terminal you can use in the other room." Sydney pointed to her left. "You can start checking out some of your NSC sources. Maybe there's some information out there that I'm not privy to. It's worth a shot."
Lauren nodded and left the room without another word.
Vaughn's eyes met Sark's from across the room. Without another word, he followed his wife, standing up and walking into the next room.
"You're right," Sark said with a chuckle. "He does still hate me. This should be fun."
"You do realize that we might be stuck here for a long while," Sydney pointed out. "There's really no information out there yet. It might take months for something new to emerge."
"It will happen eventually. And you and I are perfectly capable of running our normal lives while at this safehouse. Multitasking was always your thing when you were doing that double agent thing."
"Well, it should be getting a lot harder now that we have a daughter. We have to start thinking of her first rather than only worrying about satisfying our lust for action."
"I think we'll be fine," Sark said, standing up. "You should call your mother. Let her know that all six of us are here safely. And ask her if there's anything she needs us to do from our current house arrest position."
Sydney nodded. She actually had a whole list of people she needed to talk with. Her mother and father being at the top. Then there was the call to Will to make sure that he was fully recovered. She also had to make sure that Dixon understood that Vaughn and Lauren might not be on active status for quite a while. Not to mention the endless list of phone calls to her old contacts to see if they knew anything about the Rambaldi prophecy that was currently messing with her life.
It practically made her head ache just thinking about it.
Before she could lift a hand, her cell phone began to ring loudly. Picking it up as quickly as she could so that Hope wouldn't be awoken, she hissed "Bristow" into her end.
"Are you all moved in?" Irina asked on the other end.
"Yes, Mom. I was about to call you and let you know. But your impatience must have gotten the best of you."
"I was never a fan of waiting." Irina sighed. "Plus, I wanted to let you know that your father and I are getting nowhere. There's no mention of any new Rambaldi information on the black market. It's almost as if someone made the whole thing up."
"Could someone have?"
"I wouldn't put it past a person. You have rubbed quite a few people wrong in your time as a spy."
"You've wronged three times as many people. Did it ever occur to you that they might be trying to get to you through me?"
"No way," Irina said. "Anyone who's met me wouldn't dare to hurt you in that way."
Sark walked into the room, and Sydney motioned to him who was on the other end. He rolled his eyes and grabbed the phone out of her head. "Irina, darling. We've just gotten here. Could your nagging wait a few more hours?"
"Julian. If you weren't so amusing to me, I would have you killed."
"You could try."
"And I'd succeed," she said assuredly. "You take care of my granddaughter."
"I will. She and her mother are the only good things in my life. I wouldn't lose them if it was a matter of life or death."
"Good. Listen, Julian. I was going to tell Sydney this, but I'm not sure if she could handle it right now. She's still emotional from realizing that her daughter's life might be as turbulent as her own has been." Irina paused. "It's highly likely that the search for some truth in this mess is going to take longer than anyone thought."
"How long?" he said, making sure not to look at Sydney."Years."
"I see. And during that time?"
"I will try to figure out as much work as I can for you to do. But it's likely that protecting your daughter will occupy most of your time."
"And what about the fact that she is to reside in the same house as Tyler Vaughn?" Sydney sent him a strange look at his mention of Tyler's name, but he ignored her once more.
"I didn't think it was a wise decision until we were sure that this confrontation is a positive thing. Unfortunately, her father thought otherwise."
"You let him win an argument?"
"I chose my battles. This was not one worth fighting."
"But you think the arrangement should have to be changed once information is found?"
"I think that neither Michael Vaughn nor his young son should really have any connection to my daughter. It seems like her life is always better during times like those."
He grinned wickedly at Sydney as he made his next comment. "She would be quite angry if she knew that you thought that."
"Be a dear, Julian, and don't tell her."
"I can't lie to my wife, Irina."
"Yes, you can. You're just afraid of what will happen if she finds out that you've been lying."
"Absolutely."
"Good." Irina hung up abruptly.
Sark lowered the cell phone and handed it back to Sydney. "What did my mother want?" she asked.
"She wanted to know that I'm aware of what's being asked of me."
"And what exactly is being asked of you?"
"Protection. A defense of what is mine."
"Hope and myself?"
He nodded. "This situation might not resolve itself quickly, Sydney."
"I know."
Sark sighed and stood up. "No, I really don't think you do, darling. But you will soon."
She scowled as she watched him leave the room. Why did he always have to act so smug and informed? It was his most irritating quality. The thing that made her most angry was the fact that somewhere deep inside of her she knew that he was right. It was going to take a long, long time to work through this mess. If it was the last thing she did, though, her daughter would live a normal life without feeling like a pawn.