Chapter Eleven
A/N: Ok.. I know I'm not updating at my usual pace but something have been coming up now that college is coming back to haunt me. I will update as soon as possible. And now for the Thank-You section (drum roll please):
Lunours: Thank you so much… little tidbit… there is a lot in store for him in the next few chapters… maybe something would change your mind.
MartinaCruz: It's good to have you back… thanks for the review.
Ok and now with no further ado… I give you the eleventh chapter of The Sins Of The Fathers .enjoy! and please review!
Another day before the sunrise, another empty air strip. Nadia sipped her café latté quietly. No one was in the mood to talk today, even Weiss was cranky from the lack of sleep last night.
Nadia watched as her sister talked to Vaughn, in their eyes something intimate. He whispered something in her ear that made a silly grin appear across her face. Weiss was complaining to Edward about last night restlessness, and Edward just nodded, clearly not have had a better night himself. Jack was talking to the pilot, going over the route of the flight, even though the flight was relatively microscopic to all the trans-ocean flights they were use to taking. Dixon was on the phone, something very serious in his eyes.
The day just had a foreboding feeling to it. Even as the sun began to illuminate the sky, Nadia's uneasiness didn't subside. She felt a shiver rising in her, even though the weather was warm.
Every time Nadia left a country she felt a stab of regret. She has been to all these beautiful places and never really saw any of them. All that she saw were statistics, targets, and objectives. She has been to France about 8 times now, and not once has she taken the time to just simply look at the Eiffel Tower.
Nadia through away the empty Styrofoam cup, that was once filled with steaming coffee into a nearby trash bin. She looked down at her fingers. Little known fact about her, she smoked when she was all wild and rowdy in her teens, and on days she felt like this, she missed cigarettes, but vowed never to return to them.
Dixon had finished with his phone call, and wasn't looking too pleased. In fact, he looked as though he was going to slam his phone to the floor and stomp over it any second now.
Nadia approached him slowly, hoping to get her mind off those damn cigarettes. He seemed more upset up-close, and concern began to appear in Nadia's eyes.
"What's wrong Dixon?" her voice was laced with sympathy, and a little bit of fear.
He looked up at her and drew a deep breath. He closed his eyes and after a little bit the little lines around them eased a little and he opened his eyes and released his breath with a sigh.
"Your father wants me back at APO. I'm not going to Italy with the team." He said, a little disappointed.
"Why?" Nadia was a little held aback.
"I don't know. I suspect your father wants me to help Marshall out on that end. It was Marshall on the phone, calling from work; it's late over there. he's been working himself to the bone, trying to find Tracy." Dixon sounded more sorry for Marshall than regretful at his own withdrawal from the team.
"What are you going to do now?"
"I'm going to tell Jack." Dixon said and excused himself. He clearly didn't like being left out on this mission, but was concerned about his friend. A noble man.
Nadia watched from afar when Dixon approached Jack. No emotion what so ever, She didn't like that about Jack. But she couldn't bring herself to condemn him for it, he clearly had a more than a shady past, that he must live with everyday. Even looking at his daughter would remind him of a mistake he has made. Suddenly the wonder Nadia felt about Jack was replaced with pity. The man had more things to deal with than any man should have.
"Hey." Weiss said from behind, and Nadia jumped at her voice.
He chuckled at her reaction, and Nadia noticed that his mood was letting up. She smiled at him, and he gave her a shy grin.
"Sorry about being so cranky this morning… well more like night" Weiss gave her an apolitical smile.
"It's ok… it's understandable under the circumstances. How's Edward?" She asked returning a smile.
"That dude isn't too much of a talker… but believe me it isn't easy for him. He was looking for closure, but opened up old wounds." Weiss shrugged.
Nadia didn't say anything. There isn't much you can say to someone who had to go through a lot of trouble because of the job, you just tried to make sense of it and move on. But somehow moving on wasn't going to be an easy option.
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"Pam!" Tracy heard someone calling in the darkness. "Pam! Sugar… you need to wake up!"
Tracy refused to be aroused. She couldn't face it anymore, not the dark room, not the violent guards, not the anger, and not her father.
Slowly she allowed herself to slip back into the darkness, she pushed the dreams back, she didn't want any type awareness. She could still feel some one shaking her, begging her to wake up.
Then something assaulted her nostrils, and she took a deep, sharp, startled breath. Then awareness washed upon her, her eyes fluttered open and her breaths became rapid. For a second she forgot where she was, and all she could feel was pain. Panic washed over here and she felt her heart banging against her ribs asking to be released from its cage.
Nick saw the look of sheer terror in Tracy's eyes, and he quickly held her tight, rocking her like a child whispering soothingly in her ear.
"Shhh… it's alright sweetheart. Shhh." Nick continued to speak to her gently, while tears fell involuntary from Tracy's eyes.
Slowly Tracy calmed and remembered where she was, and why it hurt so much. She quickly pulled away from Nick, embarrassed from her weakness. She slowly got to her feet although he injured body protested with screams of pain.
Tracy finally stood on shaky legs, and watched as Nick got to his feet. He was pretty agile for his age. She saw some smelling salts in his hand. It dawned on her that they probably were what flamed her nostrils. She suddenly felt so cold and she hugged herself, forgetting her injured ribs. They howled in pain at her touch, and Tracy let out a whimper. The pain caught Tracy off guard and she found the room spinning.
Nick rushed over to her and caught her just as her knees buckled. He put her down on the floor gently, propping her against the wall. Tracy waited until her head stopped feeling so heavy to open her eye.
"You shouldn't have been standing Pam." Nick looked at her with concern but his voice was that of authority.
Yup!, Tracy thought, This guy was definitely a doctor.
Her alias still sounded weird to her, it felt foreign and unnatural. Pam is name she would have to get use to if she gets out; if.
"Sorry, doc. I'm not a good patient." She said with a little chuckle. Then her face turned serious and tear stung her eyes. "I don't want to do this anymore Nick! I don't want to… he won't stop until I do what he wants! I was wrong… so wrong… he's… he's horrible!"
Tracy tried to get up again but Nick's firm hand kept her down. She looked at him and she couldn't help it anymore, she surrendered to the tears. Nick just watched her with sad eyes, and wiped tears from her bruised face. When she looked at him she saw in him someone for a second and she laughed at her little vision. He looked at her in weird way, worried that she'd lost her mind.
"You reminded me of someone Nick. You don't look like him, you don't act like him, you just remind of him in a strange way." Tracy couldn't believe that Nick reminded her of Jack for a nanosecond.
"Is that right Sugar?" he said with his grandfather smile. "I must have remind you of him in someway."
"He looked after me when my father… walked out." She said remembering the night she got sick and Jack carried her to the doctor and back to her room where she wouldn't let him go.
"That bastard Maxwell sure let his dogs do some work on you." He said touching her bruised forehead caringly.
"How did you get in here?" Tracy realized she hadn't asked the most obvious question.
"George brought me… he wanted me to check on you again... he's really scared his buddy Lou hurt you so bad the boss would come down on them. When you wouldn't wake up I told him to get me the smelling salts from the first aid kit." The look of concern still in his eyes.
"I didn't want to wake up." Tracy said bitterly.
"What? And miss all this, Pam!" Nick gestured around him sarcastically. "You gotta be tougher than that!" he said more seriously now.
"You don't know the half of it Nick." Tracy muttered.
"Of course I don't know… you didn't tell me anything about yourself!" He protested.
Tracy just looked at the man she had come to trust, a man that reminded her of Jack in a weird way. She didn't know what to tell him.
"Well? Are you going to say anything?" He asked after a while of silence.
"I'm Turner Maxwell's daughter, Nick!" Tracy finally blurted.
"What?" He laughed nervously. "You cant be Maxwell's daughter! He… he wouldn't put you in this shit hole!"
Nick got tense and paced the place. He wouldn't even look at Tracy, he was torn between the girl he knew and Maxwell's daughter.
"Nick, your burning a whole into the ground, Stop pacing!" Tracy commanded him, but he wouldn't stop moving. She got up and felt a searing pain but somehow stopped herself from falling back to the ground.
She slowly walked over to Nick and touched his arm. Nick stopped instantly, and looked at Tracy with unreadable eyes. That's when he saw them; her eyes looked exactly like Turner's.
"You are his daughter aren't you?"
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you before… I just… you didn't seem to like him so much and I didn't want to… to lose what ever friendship we might have… I needed a friend." Tracy pleaded with him.
"I know Turner's daughter and her name isn't Pam." He was hoping against hope that this wasn't true. That this is not the girl that Turner had boasted about.
"You know Turner? How do you…" Tracy began to ask but was interrupted by Nick.
"Her name isn't Pam… his daughter, her name is… Beatrice…. Bristow said the little girl's name was Beatrice!" Nick was getting frantic now.
"Yes, it's true…. My name is Beatrice… Tracy… but I told you my name was Pam because I didn't want to say anything that would stop you from… wait… did you say 'Bristow' ?" A million questions ran through Tracy's head like thunder had just struck her. "How do you know Jack? Why do you know Jack?"
It all came back to Nick now. Bristow had come to him with a case file, Turner's daughter. Jack was afraid the girl was being harshly pushed by her father. Of course Jack was right, the little girl shouldn't have been this pressured by her father. He signed a paper, that said it was in the best interest of the child that she is taken from her father, and he saw her once after that. He was right in his assessment; the girl was permanently damaged, he didn't think she could function normally. He handed her case to another doctor, and heard that she was better after a while, although he never believed it.
He quickly gave Tracy a recap of what happened and Tracy sank back to the ground, all her pain suddenly coming back to her.
"Why do I always have to run into the CIA everywhere I go! For once I want to meet someone not in bed with the government!" she complained aloud. She looked at Nick his face a bit darker now that he knew Tracy's little secret. "So I guess you weren't really a doctor in the way George thought!"
"I've studied and been practicing general medicine after I left the CIA." He said simply. "Until your father sought me out and brought me to this damned place. He told me that he was looking for you and soon as he had you, you would be everything he wanted of you."
"He wanted a killer, too bad for him, I was born with a conscience." Tracy said sarcastically.
"Is that why you're here Tracy?" Nick sounded like he was practicing her name.
"Yah… that's what I'm in for."
They looked at each other for a long time until George appeared at the door and took Nick.
Damn!, Tracy thought, When I'm going back home, I'm through with this! No more CIA.
She promised herself she would keep that promise, and after a while she started to practice standing with out passing out.
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It's been three days, three long days, and Jack had found nothing. Marshall having had the same luck, there was still nothing to go on. The team was getting restless, and so was Sloan.
"Jack, have you ever considered the possibility that Tracy is already dead?" Sloan said in his business tone.
"Turner wouldn't killer her, not yet anyway." Jack matched Sloan's tone, and adding a touch a cool to his voice.
"What makes you think that Jack?" Sloan asked almost mockingly.
"If she was dead, Turner would take it as a failure on my part. He would flaunt her for me to see what my mistakes have lead to." Jack continued in the same tone.
"Jack, I don't like saying this.. but, we have other issues to focus on. I will not allow a personal vendetta against Turner to cloud your judgment." Sloan said forcefully. "You have two more days Jack. When you come back bring that's Richards fellow with you… he can take Tracy's spot."
Sloan hung up, and it took a lot of self discipline not to jump up and down shouting at Sloan to stop being such a closed minded idiot.
"That wasn't good news, was it?" Sydney voice came from the door. Jack turned and saw his daughter standing with her arms crossed against her chest.
"No it wasn't… Sloan wants us back at APO by day after tomorrow. He says Edward can fill the gap left by Tracy." Jack said bitterly.
Sydney let her arms fall to her side, and tucked some loose hair behind her ear.
"Marshal hadn't found anything yet?"
"No." Jack answered simply.
"Edward wouldn't take the job, dad." Sydney said ominously.
"Yes I know." Jack's cell phone rang before he could say anything else.
"Bristow." He said coldly.
"Jack!" Turner answered back.
Sydney turned to leave, but Jack waved his hand for her to stay.
"Turner." Jack said it out loud so that Sydney would know what to do.
She grabbed her cell phone and dialed up Marshall.
"Trace the number my dad is on with, now!"
"I'm already on it, Syd." Marshall fumbled audibly with his keyboard.
"I thought you might want to know what happened to Tracy." Turner said arrogantly.
"Where is she?" Jack demanded.
"She's where she belongs Jack… with me!" Turner shouted. "But I have to say she is not as responsive as I wanted her to be. Nice combat training though… very impressive. Your handy work, I believe."
"It's her training… she's CIA."
"Oh I know you took her in to the family business, Jack. But there are undeniable traces of you in her. Of course, that wouldn't be for long."
Turner hung up and Jack just stood there for a while, then looked at the cell phone. He really wanted to smash it now.
"I've lost the connection!" Marshall complained on the line with Sydney.
"Did you find anything we can use?" Sydney asked urgently.
"I think… if I can.. yah I could.." Marshall seemed to be talking to himself.
"Marshall! Do you have something or not!" Sydney demanded.
"Yes.. yes! Just give me a couple of hours… I have narrowed the position down close enough… I just need to get some satellite surveillance…. Give me a few hours and I will have… a target for you… just a couple a hours." Sydney looked at her watched and realized how late it must be for Marshall. She regretted being so pushy.
"Thanks Marshall." She said in a soft tone.
"Anything?" Jack asked with as much concern that he could have in his voice.
"We'll have a target in a couple of hours." Sydney looked at her father and relief seemed to wash over his face. "I'm going to tell the others."
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A/N: Tada! Chapter eleven! I know the story has more twists than a pretzel and a Mexican soup opera… but bare with me… only a couple of more chapters to go.. please review and tell me what you think.