Sydney gasped as she clamped her hand over her mouth, and Vaughn wrapped his arm around her before he said, "Are you saying someone has abducted Isabelle?"

A moment of deafening silence passed before Dixon answered, "Yes, I am." Jack recovered from the shock of the news first and he began to issue orders when Dixon interrupted him, "I've already put out a directive that all commercial flights be grounded though it's safe to assume whoever did this has probably chartered a private flight."

"Have either of the agents regained consciousness yet, Dixon?" Vaughn asked.

"Yes, they have but unfortunately neither of them seem to remember anything beyond the fact the security net had just went down. I've requested that they both undergo regression therapy and in the meantime we are searching for other leads. In the meantime a chopper is headed to your position and a flight will be waiting to bring you back."

"Acknowledged."

"The chopper is ten minutes out from your position," Dixon said, "Syd, Vaughn, I promise you we're doing everything we can to find Isabelle. We are going to bring her home safe and sound to you."

/
In the time it took them to get from the site in Mongolia and to the plane Dixon had standing by little progress had been made in finding Isabelle or those who abducted her. Because the security net had went down before the attack on the agents there was no footage from any of the cameras the agents had placed throughout the apartment. Their only hope was the regression therapy Dixon had requested for the agents but the doctors had been unable to awaken them as of yet from their drug induced sleep. The majority of the flight home was a quiet one as all three quickly exhausted their extensive pool of contacts. They had all asked but no one had heard a thing about the disappearance of a baby whose kidnapping heralded a huge potential for extortion because of the CIA connections both her parents and grandfather all held.

Shortly after he had settled down beside Sydney, Vaughn found himself first fighting drowsiness which fast became a feel of exhaustion until finally he had to close his eyes. With his hand interlaced with Sydney's Vaughn had succumbed to his weariness, and while some come have viewed it as unconcern for their missing baby daughter, Sydney knew that he couldn't help it as he had already pushed himself beyond his limits anyways. She watched him for a few minutes before getting up to retrieve a blanket to cover him, and after she had kissed him she turned to see Jack watching them. Instead of sitting down beside Vaughn again she walked over to where her dad was and took the seat beside him. She surprised Jack by leaning close to him and she was about to lay her head on his shoulder when he wrapped his arm around her.

Sydney's tears started flowing when she felt her father's comforting touch which was quickly followed by Jack's voice speaking in quiet tones, "We're going to find her, Sydney, you have to believe that." His voice held a calming reassured determination to it betraying nothing of the fear he was feeling over the disappearance of his granddaughter.

"I'm scared, Dad, I'm so scared for her. What if whoever has her hurts her or what if they don't take care of her? What if they just let her cry when she doesn't want to sleep or what if she's afraid?" Sydney said, wiping away one of her tears, "I think I can finally understand what I've put you through all these years I've been going on missions, first for SD-6 and then the CIA, and then for APO."

There was hardly a true comparison here because even though Jack had been worried and scared almost everyday for Sydney once she had joined SD-6, she had also been very capable of defending herself. Isabelle however was at the complete mercy of whomever had taken her from her crib. Still Jack knew it would do no good to point out the differences between Sydney and Isabelle's situations, "I admit everyday when I read the reports for your missions at SD-6, I nearly had a heart attack when I read about some of the things you did or were put through."

"Wait, Dad, I always assumed that even before I found out the truth that you were working for SD-6 that you were somehow involved in planning the missions I went on. Now you're telling me that you didn't?" Sydney asked incredulously. She knew her father was considered to be one of the world's best game theorist in the intelligence community so it made no sense to her that they wouldn't have used his mind on the designing of missions.

"Because he was my superior at the CIA, Sloane knew about Project Christmas," Jack responded, "He knew that you had training from it but he recruited you because he knew it was a way to insure my loyalty to the Alliance, and more importantly to him."

"And one of the ways they exacted their control over you was to never let you have a say in my welfare by helping to plan the missions I went on," Sydney stated.

The only confirmation Jack gave was a nodded, as he watched Sydney closely. In the last few minutes they had been talking her tears had stopped although she was clearly still upset. Now as he watched her Jack could see that her tears were threatening to flow again. He spoke gently to her as he said, "Sweetheart, you should get some rest. Isabelle will get no benefit from her mother being exhausted and I know you want to be on the team when we bring her home again."

Sydney might have protested what he said if she hadn't have given an involuntary huge yawn just then. She pulled away from Jack, "You're probably right, Dad, I should try to get some sleep." She kissed his cheek before she stood up, stretching, "You should try to get some rest as I am sure you'll want to be a part of the team too."

"I will, sweetheart," Jack said.

Sydney fished another blanket from one of the storage compartments to get to Jack before she settled beside Vaughn, pulling a piece of his blanket over her before she snuggled beside him. The last thought to enter Jack's mind before he closed his eyes was how they'd make whomever had taken Isabelle pay for dragging his sweet baby granddaughter into this.