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A/N: Just to let you know that this is the last chapter of this fic. Thank you to all who read, reviewed, or both. It is greatly appreciated.

Blaming not yourself, said the fault lies somewhere else
Repeated when the feelings high
I wish it all could just rely
On the depth of you and I
Wasting energy, where's the enemy?

Sydney was seated on her couch, with the daily newspaper spread out before her. When there was a knock on her door, she considered not opening it. It wasn't very often that she got a moment's peace, and when it did happen, she liked to revel in it.

But even given her desperation for a chance to relax. Sydney couldn't ignore a knock on her door. And when she did open it, she got the shock of her life.

"Dad?" Sydney blinked. "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to let you know that Alice Williams was taken into CIA custody last night. From the information retrieved from her laptop, it would seem that she was mounting a case against you, Sydney. You got a lucky break."

Sydney slumped against the doorframe, only hearing half of what Jack was saying. Her mind was on Vaughn and what he must be going through. He would be an absolute wreck.

"Sydney, are you listening to me?"

Her eyes snapped up. "Have you heard anything about Vaughn?"

"Who?"

"My handler." Sydney tried to keep the frustration tone out of her voice.

"I don't know anything about him."

"Oh ok."

"Right, I have to go. Work." Jack stated.

"Before you go, can I ask you something?"

"Yes, but make it quick."

"When you spoke to me the other day, you seemed really troubled by the whole Alice thing. I guess, I'm asking why?" Sydney asked, hesitantly. "You knew Alice well before this whole scenario, yet it wasn't until we found out about her relationship with Vaughn that you became adamant about bringing her down."

Jack was not willing to express either of his reasons for his behaviour the other day. He and Sydney did not have the type of relationship where they could just open up. He couldn't tell her that his actions stemmed from a deadly concern for her safety. If the CIA hadn't have taken her into custody, then Jack would have been forced to take more drastic action to protect his daughter.

And as for his second reason? Well, Jack spent everyday keeping that hidden from Sydney and that's how he planned things would stay. Sydney could never know.

"Dad, please tell me. I really want to understand."

"Sydney," Jack's tone was blunt. "There are things about me that you will never understand. I reacted in such a way that I would around any enemy that we had the chance of capturing. The chance was there and I thought best to seize it. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to return to work."

Sydney watched helplessly as Jack walked away. He was right. She would never understand him.

"Ok, I'm going to say this and I just hope that it doesn't put a total dampener on the evening."

Alice looked at Vaughn curiously as he opened the restaurant door to let them out.

"So," she started warily, "is this the point of the evening where you tell me that you're married or a priest or secretly pining away for your next door neighbour named Robert?"

Vaughn laughed. "Not quite."

"Then what?"

"I wasn't sure about tonight. If James hadn't have encouraged me, I'm not sure I would have asked you out."

"Well," Alice's eyebrows rose, "you certainly know how to make a girl feel special."

"I wasn't finished." Vaughn replied quickly as he took her hand casually in his. "I wanted to say that I was wrong. I've had a great time tonight."

Alice smiled softly. "Well since you're being so honest…I only agreed to tonight at Shannon's insistence."

"Don't we make a great pair?" Vaughn said, chuckling slightly.

"Hmm," Alice agreed. "But you know what?"

"What?"

"I'm glad that our friends forced us to go out together."

Vaughn looked directly into her eyes. "Me too," he whispered softly as he leant in and placed a tender kiss on her lips.

After flashing his ID the guard stepped aside to allow Vaughn to enter the small interview room. The Alice he saw sitting in there was completely different to the Alice he knew. Gone was her sunny disposition, only to be replaced by a harsh anger. Seeing her like this, Vaughn had no trouble accepting who Alice truly was.

"Hello Michael." Her tone was expressionless, but her eyes spoke in volumes.

"Alice." He sat down opposite her.

"So am I going to get an explanation, or do the two years we spent together mean nothing?"

"You mean the two years you spent lying to me."

"Oh please." Alice scoffed. "I wasn't the only one who lied. Look at where we are, Michael…or should I call you Agent Vaughn?"

Vaughn ignored her last sarcastic comment, focusing on what she said first. "True, I did lie about my job," he admitted. "But you were the only one who was lying about being a criminal."

"So, just because the cause I am fighting for has different beliefs to your precious CIA it makes me a criminal?"

"Yes Alice, it makes you a criminal." Vaughn said patiently. "Because the cause you are fighting for is run by enemies of this country."

Alice glared at him for a second before speaking. "So Michael, have you known about my real job the whole time? Did you think that you could use me for information, huh? Is that why you decided to ask me out?"

Vaughn swallowed hard. "I only found out recently that you worked for the Alliance."

"How?" Vaughn didn't reply and that infuriated Alice. If she hadn't been handcuffed to her chair she would have slammed her fists on the table as she exploded, "How god dammit! You owe me an explanation, Michael!"

"I owe you nothing, Alice." He stared at her, his expression hard. Surprisingly, Alice found herself soften.

"Please Michael. I want to know how," she said softly. "I need to know who betrayed me."

"Nobody betrayed you, Alice. It was a CIA agent who identified you."

"And how… You've got somebody in SD-6, don't you?"

Vaughn sat mutely. He'd said enough already. Instead he just stood to leave. He couldn't bear looking at Alice's face any longer. It hurt too much. As he turned to walk away, Alice called out.

"Michael." Her tone was desperate. Vaughn stopped walking but he refused to face her. Instead she was forced to address his back. "I just wanted to say something. I don't know how it will help the situation, but I need to say it. I was so happy with you, Michael. I know things were far from perfect between us, but that doesn't mean I didn't love you."

Vaughn still didn't turn around. "How do you want me to respond to that, Alice? Do you want me to say that the truth about you doesn't matter and that I will love you forever?"

"I don't—"

"Well I'm not!" Vaughn yelled violently as he whipped around. "Because I can't." He approached the table, placing his hands palms down and leaning in about an inch from Alice's face. "Yes, I loved you, and I probably still do." His voice was forcefully restrained. "But that feeling will soon be gone. Because, thanks to you, when I look back on our relationship, I won't be able to think about all the happy times we had together. All I'll be able to think about is the lying, treacherous woman I unwittingly shared a bed with. The woman who knowingly worked for an organization which wouldn't hesitate in destroying the lives of countless innocent people."

"Michael, just let me—"

"No," he said abruptly as he straightened up. "There is nothing you can say that can help rectify this situation." He paused at the door. "I'll move on from this eventually. But for you, well, you're the one who will spend the rest of her life behind bars having to live with the decision you made. Good-bye Alice. Don't expect to ever see me again."

There was something different about the phone call. The voice that said 'Joey's Pizza', it was different. Sydney was hesitant to answer the call, but then she realized whom the voice belonged to.

She was out of her apartment in a flash.

Vaughn was at the warehouse when she got there, slumped in a chair, his head in his hands. Even though he heard Sydney approaching, he didn't move.

"You got here quick," he said.

"Yeah. If I don't deliver the pizza within the hour, it's free."

Vaughn looked up then and Sydney felt a deep ache when she saw the wrought expression on his face. He looked as if he had aged about ten years.

"You weren't in the middle of anything, were you?" Vaughn asked and Sydney shook her head. "Good. I didn't want to disrupt anything…"

"Vaughn, you are not a disruption. This whole handler/ asset thing works both ways."

"I just…well, you know…"

"Yeah," Sydney said gently as she sat down on the table. Silence descended for a few minutes before Vaughn spoke up again.

"Do you think that it is possible to love and hate somebody at the same time?"

"How do you mean?"

"Alice, I loved her and I think I still might. But then I think of who she really is and it sickens me to think that I could care for a person like that."

"Vaughn—"

"She knew what she was doing! She knew…"

"Vaughn." He looked up at Sydney. "Can I say something?"

"Sure," he said wearily.

"Personally, I don't know what you are going through, but I do know what it is like to find out that a large part of your life is a lie. When I found out the truth about SD-6 I was gutted, because the fact was I loved my job so much. It made up so much of who I was. And Alice was a large part of you.

What you have to remember is that the Alice you fell in love with isn't the Alice from SD-6. She, like me, has two different sides. There's the student Sydney and then there's the agent Sydney. I work so hard everyday to keep them separate in the hope for a normal life. By the looks of things, Alice was attempting to do the same."

Vaughn closed his eyes briefly. "You may have two different sides, but one of them is not a terrorist."

"True," Sydney agreed. "But you cannot focus on that side of her. If you push aside all the good times that you and Alice shared and concentrate only on the hate, then you are just going to eat away at yourself. And you cannot let that happen. Just remember- two different people."

"You make it sound so easy and it just isn't, Sydney. It isn't!"

"I know that, Vaughn. You've got a hell of a lot of stuff to work through and it's going to be a long and tough trek." She paused, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "You said to me, not that long ago, that I could always contact you when I was feeling low or depressed. And I'm saying the same thing to you now. If you need to talk, or need to somebody to sit with, or even somebody to rant and rave at, then all you have to do is call Joey's Pizza and ask for the house special."

Vaughn allowed himself a small chuckle. "Thank you… thank you," he said, placing his hand over Sydney's in a grateful clasp.

THE END