A/N: I know...gasping and clutching at your heart because Hallelujah, there's an update. And no, your eyes do not decieve you, I really have a new chapter for this story...like two months since the last one...I know, I know, really really long time but I have a good reason! Muse died, play rehearsal(that's over btw), school, bio, chronic sickness(I am currantly experiencing yet another cold. What the f is up with me getting the Goddamn colds?!), and friends. So that leaves me with no time to write, even though I have this entire story planned out. I will finish it! If it is the last thing I do(which it probably will be) I will finish this story by the time I graduate...in two years...after this year....please don't kill me.

And second, I absolutely adore each and everyone of you who review my stories but I am finding lately that I have no time (see above paragraph) to write, much less respond to reviews. I will still do that, for some but not all. So new policy is in the house: Melanie have no time to respond to reviews but she loves you all very dearly. Okay, I see no rotten tomatoes or anything else rotten hurdling toward me, so I assume that everyone is alright with that? Okay...

And great news! (sorta) Everyone responded to my song choices pretty well and that made me so happy cause I was a little worried about it. But you're all cool with them, I'm cool with them, ergo, we are all cool...I need to stop reading Harry Potter fanfics...::shakes head:: yes, I know, bad Melanie, straying away from the almighty Alias but it's not my fault! My friends forced me(well, maybe not forced persay) to read the Harry Potter books and then I did and I am almost as obsessed with HP now as I am with Alias and I love Sirius and he didn't die and Lupin is the best kick ass teacher in the world and my brain is getting quite full and I need lots and lots of help...::holds up sign:: Please help me...

And Grouchy: we all feel sorry for Vaughn....even if he was a jerk who left Syd and Cory...well at least I feel sorry for him but then again, I'm a little biased in that area.

Okay, now you can have new chapter....:D

(like I said, back to 3rd person)

Do I go to her? Do I just stand here? It took him less than a full second to dismiss the idea of just standing there and letting this opportunity pass by him. She called to him. That meant she at least had something to say. Maybe more. But he wasn't going to get his hopes up.

Another two seconds later and he was at her side. She had waited until he was close to reach out and grab his shirt collar, gathering more strength than she showed in a long time and throwing him into the wall she had just been clinging to. A sharp pain arose in the area where his back hit the wall, but was quickly pushed to the back of his mind when she spoke, low and strong.

"Listen to me and listen to me good because I am only…" She paused, pushing into the wall harder, "…going to say these once." He swallowed hard and nodded.

"First, if you ever lie to me again, or decide to hide something from me, I swear you will regret the day you were born." He nodded in agreement.

"Second," She pushed him into the wall again, this time a little harder, "You will tell me everything that has happened since the day you starting digging that damned hole you got yourself into. No more of this vague crap, I want every action, every word you said, every f thought." Another nod from him.

"Third," Again, she pushed him into the wall. She wasn't sure why she did it. Maybe to keep his attention on what she was saying. Or maybe because she wanted to beat the crap out of him and this was less attention getting. "You are going to spend the rest of your life making it up to Cory and myself." He nodded.

"Fourth," This time, her push wasn't as hard, but still enough to add to the gathering pain in his back. "If you break any of these promises…I'll kill you myself. You do not get another chance. Is that clear?" He nodded, knowing full well that she would most likely do something like that.

"Good," She released her death grip on his shirt, allowing him the chance to step away from the wall a little. "Now that we have that settled you have to leave."

That was probably the last thing he was expecting. Most anything would have been more expected. "What?"

"Do you want to go to jail?" She asked, impatiently.

"Not really," He answered, following her as she took off at a fast walk down the street.

"Then I suggest that you get your ass out of France and soon. I give the CIA six hours at the most before they close in."

He stopped her by grabbing her arm. "You called the CIA?"

"What else would you expect me to do, Vaughn?" She asked, impatiently. "I did what I thought was right."

"But—"

She interrupted him, knowing exactly what he was going to say. If she thought that turning him in was the right thing, why was she helping him elude the CIA? He knew that she wasn't one to take right and wrong lightly. "If you're in jail, you really can't be anything of a father to Cory. I'd rather live outside the law and have you and Cory, than live in and have a broken family."

"Is this all about Cory?" He asked, in a low voice.

"For now." She answered truthfully, and beginning to walk towards the car again, "I'm not sure if I can trust you yet."

He shook his head, "Let me get this straight, you would spend the rest of your life with me just so Cory could have her father around?" She nodded but refused to look at him as she did so. "That's very unselfish of you."

"I care more about Cory's happiness than my own at the moment," She replied, unlocking the car.

Vaughn didn't know what to say at this moment. He didn't deserve her mercy or whatever it was that she was doing. If she had told him 'No way in hell are you ever coming near me or Cory again', he wouldn't have been surprised. That was the Sydney he knew and loved. This Sydney was different. This Sydney let him come near her, she let him talk to her, and the most surprising of it all, she was serious about letting him be a part of his daughter's life. More so, she was seriously considering running away with him and their daughter. Unable to hinder his curiosity anymore, he asked, "What happened to you, Syd?"

Sydney looked up surprised and for a moment, she faltered. That was probably the best damn question he or she, for that matter, had asked all damn day. What did happen to her? Yesterday, hell this morning even, she hated Vaughn and anything and everything about him and now here she was…what was she doing anyway? She was helping him elude federal custody when she had been the one to report him. Why was she helping him to begin with? She should let him get what was coming to him but she couldn't. Why couldn't she? The more she pondered the issue, the more questions piled up and the less she was able to provide answers. Shaking her head and with a gesture towards the car in-between them, she said, "Get in. We don't have a lot of time."

He hadn't really expected her to answer his question, so when she didn't it failed to surprise him much. Doing as he was told, Vaughn opened the passenger side car door and got into the car.

"Syd? You okay?"

Sydney blinked and looked up at Vaughn. She smiled at the concerned look on his face. He worried about her non-stop and long ago she had given up on fighting him on it and had learned to just accept it. Now she adored it. Slowly, she nodded, her smile never fading. "Yeah, fine."

Her words didn't do much to reassure him. "Are you sure?" He asked, sitting down on the edge of the couch that she had fallen onto a little over an hour ago and refused to get up of.

She was still smiling lovingly at him as she reached up and played with some of his hair, "Positive." She sighed contently before continuing, "I was just thinking."

Now the look of concern melted away to a smile that matched hers. "About what?"

Her breath caught in her throat and after a slight pause, she kept playing with his hair. She did not want to talk about what she had been thinking about. Her smile turned a little fake as she answered, "You."

He sensed her lie and caught her hand, pulling it away from his hair. "Liar, liar, pants on fire," He teased, kissing the wedding ring on her hand that he held.

She laughed and pulled herself up to a sitting position, "It's the truth, I swear."

He raised an eyebrow and nudged her legs softly. She obliged to his unspoken command and bent her legs so he could sit down properly on the couch. "What do you swear on?"

She bit her lip in thought before finally saying, "On chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream."

He regarded her with another raised eyebrow before shaking his head, "Not good enough."

"Why?"

"Because," He explained, "That is my favorite ice cream. You don't even like that much." She opened her mouth to protest but he put a finger to her lips. "Why don't you just tell me what you were thinking about?"

She sighed, giving in. "My mother."

He tensed when she mentioned her mother and started to wonder exactly what she was thinking about in relation to her mother. "What about your mother?" He sounded calm, surprising himself.

Sydney sighed again, "That I'm so much like her." Vaughn breathed a silent breath of relief. "And that scares me."

He frowned, "Why would that scare you?"

"Because," She cried, exasperated, "my mother is a horrible woman who…" She trailed off. Shaking her head, she went on but with a different subject. "When I was in college, I wanted to be just like my mom. I wanted to teach English Lit and have a loving husband and a little girl. But then…" She trailed off again, but he didn't need for her to finish this sentence. She had been devastated when she learned the truth about her mother. "I keep thinking," She went on, "What if I…?"

"What if you what?" He probed, softly.

"What if I do what she did?" She answered, softly.

"You're going to have to be more specific than that, darling." He teased, gently, hoping to bring a smile to her face.

It worked, and she smiled, very briefly before the solemn look returned. "What if I leave like she did? What if I leave you and our child?"

He swallowed hard. If only she knew that she wasn't the one who would have to leave… "You won't." He said, reassuringly running a hand up and down her calf softly. "I know you and you wouldn't do something like that."

She snorted. "My dad thought he knew my mom and she did something exactly like that."

"But you're not your mother, Syd." He insisted.

She sighed, "Now I'm not but what if…what if one day I do become her? I don't think I could live with myself if I became that woman."

His hand gravitated upwards to her cheek and caressed it softly. "Trust me, Syd. You won't ever become your mother."

"What makes you say that?" She asked.

"Because you actually have a heart and you care too much about the people around you to become a woman like Irina Derevko."

She smiled briefly before stretching her legs out and standing up. "I'm going to go for a walk."

"Want me to come with?"

Her smile lingered as she shook her head and leaned over to kiss him softly, "No, I need to clear my head."

"Okay," He agreed with a disappointed sigh. "While you're gone, I'll make some dinner."

She licked her lips, just thinking about his cooking skills that bested hers –what do you expect from a Frenchman?- and nodded. "Then I'll make sure not to take my time."

"I'll hold you to that." He answered, watching her as she slipped on some suitable shoes and after blowing him a kiss, left the apartment. Sure that she was gone, he sighed and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He took his time dialing a number before pressing the call button but he didn't raise the phone to his ear. Instead when a voice answered the phone, he hit the '1' button twice before hanging up the phone.

"Syd?" Vaughn asked again.

After being deaf to his previous attempts to her get her attention, Sydney blinked and turned to him, irritably. "What?"

"Are we going to sit in the car all day?" He asked, gesturing around the car. They had drove to Vaughn's mother's house in silence and when they got there, Sydney turned off the car but made no move about going in.

Sydney shook her head, mentally hitting herself for letting herself get lost in that resurfaced memory. "Of course not," She snapped, yanking the keys out of the ignition and throwing her door open harder than necessary. He watched her without comment and carefully got out of the car as if just moving would set Sydney off.

She didn't seem to notice anything he was doing, instead she walked up to the house with a bit of stomp her foot and didn't wait for him before going inside. She turned just inside the door and gestured for him to follow. He did, fearing the look in her eyes.

"Claire!" Sydney yelled, the second she had closed the door behind Vaughn. He jumped, slightly, obviously nervous about facing his mother.

"In the kitchen," Claire yelled back.

"Where are Cory and Trish?" Sydney asked next, grabbing Vaughn by the arm and pulling him with her in the direction of the kitchen.

"My Aunt Trish?" Vaughn whispered to which Sydney nodded.

"Out back," Claire answered, with less of a yell, "Though you might want to go out there and save your daughter from more of Trish's nonsense…" She trailed off, suddenly when she saw Sydney step into the kitchen, dragging behind her one of the last people she ever expected to see again. Her mouth fell open as she stared at Vaughn openly.

Vaughn shifted his weight uncomfortably, though Sydney ignored him. "Look what I found wandering the streets." Sydney said, sarcastically, missing the look Vaughn threw her.

"Michael?" Claire asked, carefully. Vaughn nodded uncomfortably. "What…? How…? Why…? Are you…?" The daze left Claire just as suddenly as it came. "So, did you get a case of a guilty conscious or did you have amnesia for the past six years?"

Vaughn looked down at the floor and ran a hand through his hair nervously. "Well, you see…Maman, I can explain…"

"I think you owe Sydney and your daughter an explanation before you even begin to give me one." Claire snapped.

"He already explained everything to me," Sydney said, quietly.

Claire's motherly attitude returned a little though her temper still remained in control. "And was it a good explanation?"

Sydney bit her lip and glanced sideways at Vaughn, "Well, no…not really." Claire raised an eyebrow, and Sydney continued, realizing that wasn't the best thing to say even if it was the truth. "Well, it wasn't the explanation I had been expecting."

"And what were you expecting?" Claire demanded.

"Anything that didn't include my mother," Sydney mumbled and Vaughn fidgeted uneasily. Though her comment had been low, Claire still caught it.

"What about your mother?" She asked, shrilly. Sydney had confessed to her three years ago the truth about her mother and all that she had done, including killing Vaughn's father. "What in the name of all that is Holy have you been up to, Michael?"

Vaughn opened his mouth to respond when a soft voice gasped from the door leading to the backyard.

"Daddy?"

Why doI have the feeling that you all want to kill me now? Hehehehe....