FAMILY MATTERS
Eyghon
Chapter 2: PuzzleThe next day, Sydney frowned as she awoke in her mother's arms. She slowly sat up and rubbed her face with her hands. Irina reluctantly got up but smiled. "Sleep well?"
"Yeah…" Sydney cleared her throat. Her voice was hoarse from crying the previous night. She felt embarrassed for letting herself crumble in front of Irina Derevko, but damn that had felt good. "I should get breakfast ready, Nadia must be up already. I'm sure you're impatient to see her awake."
They went to the kitchen and found Nadia huddled on the couch, distractedly watching some cartoon on TV. Sydney kissed her on the cheek. "Hey, Nadia." She only got a smile in response but it was more than on the average day. Nadia smiled often but without reason. In that instance, she had smiled in response to her sister's greeting. She was very aware this morning and her big sister was glad.
There were good days and bad days. Today, Sydney didn't feel up to dealing with Nadia's tantrums and she was relieved to see her sister seemed in good shape, for now.
She went to work on breakfast and politely refused her mother's offer to help. Irina went to sit with Nadia and laughed with her as Jerry once again escaped Tom. Sydney frowned and shook her head before flipping over the last row of pancakes.
"Breakfast is ready," she called out a minute later, while setting up glasses and plates on the table. It felt so odd and so warming to prepare breakfast for her mother and sister. If not for her father's absence, it could have been called a family breakfast.
It was a quiet meal, participants happy to just eat and stare at their own plate. Nadia ate with her hands while Irina and Sydney favoured knife and fork. Done, Nadia started fidgeting impatiently until Sydney got up and helped her wash her hands.
One hour later both Sydney and Irina had taken a shower and now it seemed a good time to talk.
Both sat in the kitchen, Nadia within their line of sight. Irina went straight to the point. "Sydney, I want to do some research of my own about Nadia's condition, see if I can find something that would help, but I need information first. I need to know what the doctors did, what they found when they ran those tests you mentioned?"
"Pretty much nothing," she sighed. "I could get you her medical records, but I doubt it would help. We did everything and looked everywhere already."
"It's worth a try. I have resources that even APO doesn't have. When can you get me those files? I can't stay in Los Angeles too long."
"What?" Asked Sydney, worried that her mother was just about to walk out the door and leave her alone again, with a disconnected sister for only company.
"I understand you got promoted, I don't want to jeopardize your standing within your agency by being caught in your apartment."
Sydney couldn't help but smile. Rescued from her evil sister barely two months ago, Irina was already back in the game and seemingly knew all about APO. Something she admired in her mother on a job related basis was her thoroughness. She always seemed to know what she was doing.
She nodded. "I can get them this afternoon but I can't leave Nadia alone. Being Co-Director keeps me away from the field but it allows me to be here for her. It's the only reason I accepted the job."
"You miss field work, don't you?"
"Yeah. I do. I've always wanted to get out of this life, but now that I got a taste of inaction, I'm not so sure anymore. The best action I had since I moved into this nice, big office was Chase barging in without knocking."
"It's normal. You're addicted to the thrill of danger, to the rush of adrenaline you get while in dangerous situations. There are other ways to get those feelings than being in the field, you know."
"Like what? Free fall? I don't think so. I jumped from a 747 on fire with a parachute barely strapped on. I've done so many insane things that nothing accessible to an average American would ever come close to making me miss a beat."
"Many agents experience that. You should ask around you, I'm sure the CIA has a support group of some sort."
Sydney snorted. "I've been to a few group meetings about my missing two years. I hated it. I'm not big on the 'sharing your feelings' thing. I've been hurt too many times before because of that."
Irina nodded solemnly, skillfully hiding her hurt over her daughter's innocent revelation, which she took for herself.
"Sydney, if we're going to do this, try and find a cure for Nadia, I need to know I can count on you."
"If you're afraid I'll turn you in as soon as you have your back on me, don't worry, I won't."
"Thank you but I was concerned about what we might have to do. You said it yourself, the CIA looked everywhere for information and came up with nothing. We need to look deeper, places American agents don't have access to. I need to be certain you are willing to do anything it takes to get Nadia back to her normal self. "
"Of course I am!"
"You don't understand. I need to know you won't question my methods. That you'll be with me 100 and that, you'll have my back to matter what. We will probably have to break a few dozen laws and do other things that probably disagree with what the CIA book says."
"I don't play by the book, Mom. Never have. It wouldn't be the first time I break the law, don't worry about me. I have no scruples doing whatever it takes when it comes to my family or my friends. You can count on me."
Irina nodded. Sydney had gotten the message and seemed to be on the same page as her mother. "Good. I just wanted to make that clear."
"It's crystal. And I would love to work with you again."
Irina threw her a surprised look. "Really?"
"You are a great partner to have in the field."
Irina nodded in acknowledgement, smiling as she realised her daughter had really enjoyed their time together in Sovogda. "I'll watch over Nadia while you go to your 'office'. Can you brief me on what I'll find in those files?"
"Basically nothing. Her exams showed no apparent brain damage and yet she's not herself. She's neither the Nadia I met nor the Nadia who tried to strangle me on that roof in Sovogda. It's like she's stuck in between, hovering closer to one side or another depending on the day. Her mood can change in seconds. Most of the time she walks around the apartment like a zombie. She spends a lot of time watching TV, though I can't say if she understands what she's watching."
"Did she hit you?" Asked Irina, worried, her eyes raking over Sydney's body for signs of injuries.
"Yeah," Sydney sighed. "A few days ago actually. She got…mad. She was standing right in front of me and snapped in a fraction of a second. I was down at the first punch, right in the solar plexus."
"First punch? There were others?"
Sydney self-consciously pulled her arms closer around her, growing more and more uncomfortable with the subject. "I'm fine now, but I was in no state to go after her when she left the apartment. Thankfully, Eric saw her pass his window and caught her before she could get to the road. She was not happy. You don't want to know how it ended up," she concluded somberly.
"Why did she do that?"
"I don't know. She just snaps from time to time. She's not driven or vicious anymore, like she was in Sovogda. She could have killed me back then, if it weren't for Sloane." The idea that she owed her life to Sloane made her sick but she couldn't pretend otherwise.
"It's because you weren't defending yourself, Sydney," interrupted Irina.
"You're missing the point Mom. What I meant to say it that now she's more like an animated vegetable than a killing machine. Moreover, when she snaps, she's just a mix of pure blunt force; she's easy to take down once you get past her fists. Everything about her is sort of…random. I can't explain. I learn as time goes by."
"The fluid is hindering her recovery, is it not?"
"Yes. Not exactly. Remember in Sovogda, Brodien said the Muller Device acted as a trigger for the contaminated water to take effect and physiologically alter people?"
"Yes. What about it?"
"It was only a theory in the spur of the moment, but it was confirmed when we got back to LA. However, once the device was deactivated, the fluid stopped being effective. It washed away from Nadia's body by natural means within a few weeks, like any drug would. However, the damage was done. Some of Nadia's brain functions are still shut off because a part of the fluid didn't leave her body. The doctors dubbed it 'waste particles', for lack of a better word."
Irina nodded, deep in thoughts. "I heard the Russian Special Forces had the whole city burned to the ground, so that Nadia the only human subject alive. Even if we find a cure, we'll have no one to test it on but her."
"Yes. However, that's another issue. I think we should go on with your idea and look where I couldn't look with the CIA breathing down my neck."
"Yes, but we're not looking for a cure per say anymore. We're looking for a pharmaceutical vaccine that would attack the fluid's remaining molecules like it does cancer cells."
"Yeah. We tried several of existing vaccines but it didn't work. We discovered that the molecules left in Nadia's body are not on the table of elements. They're unknown to man. We should have expected it though, knowing she was infected by an orchid hundred years old.
"Dialysis was a failure as well, because there's always a tiny bit of particles that remains. Believe me, Mom, she was examined by the best, and they unsuccessfully tried everything, from experimental drugs to electroshock. We even went back to everything Rambaldi wrote in case something spoke of a cure, a vaccine, or a remedy. No matter how you put it, there was nothing."
"Rambaldi meant for this to happen. He engendered this so people would kill each other until the world was 'cleansed'. There is no Rambaldi cure because no infected human was meant to stay alive. Rambaldi will be of no help to Nadia. We have to focus on the medical aspect of Nadia's illness; there must be something to cure her. I need to get in touch with some contacts of mine. If we could find the people that helped Yelena build the device, maybe they would know something that could help Nadia. I don't believe she would have passed the opportunity to study the effects of the solution on human subjects."
"And how do you intend on finding something that none of the Americans' three letters agencies could? I trust you, I know you have an idea already. I'm just asking you to share, and not hold off until you have all the facts like you usually do."
"I have my ways. I'll set up a protocol for us to contact each other safely, but first you must promise me you won't involve your father in any of this."
Sydney was about to reply, but thought better of it. It was a fair thing to ask. "You don't trust him."
"No. Not since Yelena showed me a tape of him killing the woman who he thought was the mother of his child without an ounce of remorse in his eyes. I still can't believe he even considered the possibility that I had anything to do with the hit put out on you." Irina went quiet, still raging over Jack's actions.
Sydney lowered her head, thinking of her own reaction but hesitating to speak up. Finally, she forgot about reason, the desire to comfort her mother too strong. "I couldn't believe it when I found out. I couldn't believe you would hire someone to kill me. But then…there were so much evidence against you. I'm not saying I approve what Dad did. I was furious with him…"
"He told you?" interrupted Irina, surprised at Jack's apparent frankness.
"No. I was not supposed to know. At least that's what he told me when he walked in on me reading CIA files granting him permission to sanction you. He let me hate him for months. I had no idea why he had done it until I had a… chance encounter with the man who claimed to have been hired to kill me. He was not happy with me because his client had been killed the day before the job was supposed to go down.
I had no idea what he was talking about. The last thing he did before dying was to name you as his deceased client. I believed him. It all made sense. It didn't change things between Dad and me, though. He didn't want me to tell Nadia and I was still convinced he could have found another way to…deal with the situation."
Irina nodded. "I understand why you believed it. I don't blame you Sydney. But I want you to know that…in spite of what you think of me, of what I do for a living, I would never, never hurt you on purpose, let alone have you killed by some random hit man."
"Are you saying that you would have the decency to do it yourself?" Asked Sydney, trying to lighten the mood.
"Sydney!"
"I believe you Mom, and I'm sorry I doubted you."
"Don't be."
"I need to get Nadia cleaned up and dressed before I leave. Make yourself at home. But please, don't eat the ice cream, Eric would kill me."
Irina smiled. "I believe there is a second episode of Tom and Jerry coming up."
"I didn't peg you for a cartoon fan," teased Sydney, trying to get Nadia to follow her to the bathroom.
"I always watched TV with you on Saturday's when you were little. Don't you remember?"
Sydney frowned, thinking. "Yeah, actually, I do. I remember sitting on your lap on that horrible green sofa, and you would try to fold the laundry but I wouldn't let you take your arms off me…," she murmured in remembrance.
Irina smiled. "You always wanted me all to yourself."
Sydney nodded distractedly, and eventually just turned off the TV to get Nadia's attention. "Come on now, it's time to take your bath, it's warm and waiting for you." She pulled Nadia to her feet but the young woman was not being cooperative. "Please Nadia, it won't take long, you can go back to your TV when we're done, come on!"
Finally, Nadia gave in and let Sydney lead her to the bathroom, though she was dragging her feet.
"Do you want me to help, Sydney?"
She hesitated, knowing Nadia would give her a hard time for interrupting her episode of Tom and Jerry. "Yeah, that would be great, thanks."
As expected, Nadia was doing her best to annoy Sydney, who was amazed at her mother's patience with the young woman. Between them both, they still managed to strip her of her PJs.
"What is that?"
Sydney peered up from behind Nadia to see an ugly hand shaped bruise on her sister's arm. She swallowed hard, feeling guilty as hell. "I didn't mean to. It's just that…when Eric brought her back, after she practically beat me to unconsciousness, she was so out of control. We didn't want to hurt her, so we gave her one of those drugs I told you about. She was struggling so much, she would have broken the needle if I hadn't held her still. I guess I held her too tight, I didn't notice at the time. I really regret it Mom, I didn't mean to hurt her."
"Of course not," said Irina, softening. "I understand. It must be hard to control her without leaving marks when she's in full rage."
"Yeah. She gets those kinds of bruises sometimes when I have to hold her back or down. I try not to hurt her. I sit on her and she calms down within minutes because she hates not being able to move at all. It's not easy because she's as strong as me, if not more."
"I'm sorry, sweetheart; I know you're doing the best you can. You don't have to justify yourself. I can't imagine what they would do to her in the hospital."
"I don't have to. I saw it first hand. They'd just tie her to her bed or sedate her, when they were tired of hearing her scream her frustration. That's why I checked her out, even though I knew it would be difficult and painful to have to do some things, I couldn't bear seeing her there anymore like a trapped animal. I think that's what she would have wanted."
Nadia had quietly stepped into the bathtub under the watchful eye of Sydney while the two woman were talking. Irina had noticed many faded scars on her youngest daughter's body but didn't comment on them. Sydney probably knew where they came from. She could only assume they were childhood marks, results of violent beatings, and shuddered at the thought. She quietly watched as Sydney slowly washed her twenty-four year old sister in the most intimate way as if she were a small child. In that moment, she pitied Sydney more than she did Nadia.
Once done, Irina dried Nadia while Sydney went to get her some clothes. They dressed her and she was happy to return to watching TV.
Hours later Sydney was finally back from APO. She entered her apartment to find Nadia and Irina both sprawled on the floor, working on assembling a puzzle. She smiled at the sight, remembering herself in this position with her mother when she was little.
"Hey, sorry it took me so long. They had tons of paperwork for me to sign," apologized Sydney, dumping her stuff on the sofa.
"Its okay, Nadia, and I had a great time," smiled Irina, getting up from the floor.
"I can see that," replied Sydney, admiring the easiness with which her mother was coping with Nadia's condition. She herself had taken quite some time adjusting to her sister's 'childishness'. She had been uncomfortable for days when she discovered she would have to play with Nadia and help her wash like her own mother did with her when she was little.
Doing puzzles and colouring were two of the things she seemed truly to enjoy. Watching cartoons came first.
"Are those her medical files?" Asked Irina, motioning to the folders Sydney still held.
"The red one is. It's pretty thick. I checked it; it includes all the results of her exams, tox screen, blood work, CAT scan…everything they did from our return to three days ago." At Irina's questioning look, she explained, "I take her back every week. They insist on doing check ups regularly to see her progress."
"What about the blue folder?"
"I thought it could be useful. It's everything the CIA, APO, the NSC, the NIH and basically every American agency has on the contaminated water from Sovogda. It goes from researches, Intel from foreign agencies, studies, analyses on rats…everything I could get my hands on."
"That will be of great help I'm sure. Thank you."
"Mom, if anyone gets wind that I got those to you I'm as good as dead."
"Don't worry, darling, I'll be careful not to mention my source," smiled Irina.
"I'm serious, Mom. I could end up in jail for treason, conspiracy with a known terrorist, and God knows what else."
"I'm aware of that, Sydney. I know the risks. I worked with your father, remember? Believe me, me coming to you was my last resort. I gave you time and your agencies couldn't find anything. Now it's my turn to step in. I want to help, but not at the risk of putting you in danger, don't worry. I'll be careful, and you should be too."
"Yeah. Sorry." She sighed. "I'm being careful, don't worry. Nobody knows I took those files. Being Co-Director has its advantages."
"I'm hungry."
Sydney and Irina both looked at Nadia, surprised at hearing her speak. Sydney recovered first, used to her sister popping out words without warning. She looked at the clock on the wall and frowned. "God I didn't realise it was so late! I'm sorry sweetie. We'll order in. What do you think Mom? Chinese, Thai, Indian?"
"Actually…I should have left hours ago. I only stayed so Nadia would not be alone. I'm sorry," said Irina, sorrowfully.
"Oh…okay, fine, it's…fine." Not a word was spoken for a few seconds. Nadia was still staring at Sydney, waiting for something to happen. Finally, she broke the silence. "Okay, well, goodbye then," she concluded, throwing her hand up in dismissal.
Irina stepped forward and kissed her older daughter's cheek, smiling. "I'm very proud of you Sydney. Goodbye." She gave her a hug.
To Nadia, whom she kissed on the forehead, she said, "finish that puzzle of yours and you can show it to me when it's done. Goodbye, my angel."
Sydney felt an odd feeling come over her as she watched her mother hug Nadia tightly. Could it be jealousy? She dismissed it.
"I'll be in touch," Irina called out before walking toward the back of the apartment toward Sydney's room.
She had laid out her exit plan in the afternoon. Sydney's window offered a direct access to the beach. She borrowed a cap and a jogging vest from Sydney and mixed with the other evening joggers, who came to the beach to unwind after a hard day of work at the office.
Sydney was on her own with Nadia, again. She sighed, feeling guilty for going down that line of thought. Nadia was the one who should be pitied, not her. She had it easy, Nadia didn't. Or did she? After all, she spent her days watching TV and playing games, not worrying about an old nutcase or the next mini apocalypse. She didn't have a care in the world. However, she had no control whatsoever on anything she did. Like a child.
She wondered what would happen if Nadia ever recovered?
TBC