A/N: I am very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, sorry that I didn't update. Since school started, I've had less and less free time, not to mention Marching band, so I have no idea when I'll get a chance to update again. Once again, I apologize, and I hope I haven't lost any readers!

Chapter 22

The next moment, a dozen things happened at once. The CIA and Covenant snipers opened fire as Nadia and Jack bent over Sydney. Lauren had reached for her gun and was firing blindly as she ran for cover.

"What the hell is going on?" Dixon demanded.

Vaughn brought the viewfinder on his gun back up to his eye as he prepared to fire at the snipers and give the Bristows cover. Before he could get his first shot off, he heard a shot fire, not fifty feet away from him. Vaughn lowered his weapon and turned his head to the announcer booth just in time to see a bright spark come out of the broken window that overlooked the field.

"Someone from our side initiated fire," Agent Norris explained.

Vaughn turned back to the field and counted four men, the allotted amount that Sark had specified. So who was this guy? Vaughn took his weapon and carried it with him across the bleachers. He crouched low and headed for the window with the intention of catching the guy by surprise.

"Dammit, anyone hit?" Dixon demanded.

He took a deep breath and stood up quickly in front of the window, his gun poised and ready. After scanning the room quickly with his eyes he saw that the room was deserted. The back entrance door was open, but there was no sign that anyone had been in the room to begin with. The guy couldn't have gotten far that quickly. Unless of course I imagined it and I'm not chasing anyone to begin with.

"Sydney Bristow was hit. Jack and Nadia are getting her to the wings and—Agent Vaughn, what are you doing?"

Apparently Agent Norris had noticed that he had left his position, but Vaughn didn't care. He needed to figure out who the guy was, and to do that, he needed to keep silent. Vaughn looked around, but was unable to see any possible escape route that he couldn't see. Feeling frustrated, he decided to check inside the announcer's booth.

"Agent Vaughn!"

The floor creaked as he walked across it, and it was dark inside. Vaughn flicked on his flashlight and looked around. It didn't take long for him to find the small trap door that had the words "Emergency Exit" written in faded red German letters. The area around the trap door was beginning to rot so bad, that Vaughn was glad that he didn't discover it by actually stepping on it.

"All agents report to the vans now!" Vaughn looked out across the field. The CIA agents were filing out at the nearest exit, and neither Jack, Nadia, nor Lauren were anywhere to be seen. Any of the Covenant agents that had escaped alive were gone. Vaughn gave one last longing look at the trapdoor before heading down the bleachers to the nearest door.

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"Do you think you can take care of it?"

"He's an assassin."

"Was."

"Yeah, I can do it."

"Good. I'll transfer the money to your account."

"What did the guy do anyway?"

"He missed."

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"Tell us what happened," Director Dixon requested. Following the attempted trade, all agents and Nadia were requested back to the safe house for questioning. Currently, Nadia was venting in the bedroom about not being able to go to the hospital because they believed that it could put her in danger. Jack had suffered a minor gunshot wound to his arm in the crossfire, but besides that, he had insisted on going to the hospital with his daughter, and that was putting it lightly. Jack had threatened Dixon to allow him to escort Sydney, not that Dixon would object anyway.

Director Dixon had been questioning every agent, under the scrutinizing glaze of Agent Norris. Vaughn could understand why they were eager to find out what happened while the events were still fresh in their minds, but Vaughn was anxious to get to the hospital. Since Sydney had been taken to the hospital an hour ago, Vaughn had not heard a word about her condition.

"Once we arrived at the scene I took my assigned position. I never fired my gun once," Vaughn insisted.

"Then why was your gun aimed at the field during the trade?" Agent Norris asked.

"Lauren Reed was my wife. She's already betrayed the CIA once. I figured she would try something again. My only goal was to protect Sydney Bristow," Vaughn defended, not at all liking how this line of questioning was going.

"If your gun was never fired, Agent Vaughn, why was the shot delivered from your position?"

"It wasn't," Vaughn said angrily. "Someone else was there. I don't know if he or she was Covenant, CIA or what, but they were hiding out in the announcer's box. They are the ones who fired down onto the field. Once I realized someone else was there, I went over to investigate. When I got there, they had left through a trapdoor in the booth."

Agent Norris looked at Agent Dixon. Vaughn knew what they were thinking. It was a secure meet. There was no way a third party would be involved when neither side wanted to compromise what they were about to gain. The likelier scenario was that Vaughn was covering up the missed shot he intended for his wife.

"Agent Vaughn," Agent Norris said leaning across the table, "you are an agent of the United States of America, so when I ask you this I want a straight answer. Did you take a rogue shot onto the field tonight, whether it was aiming for another agent or a Covenant Agent?"

Vaughn looked straight and unblinkingly into Agent Norris's eyes. "No." Agent Norris looked unconvinced, but there was little they could do to prove it.

"Alright, Agent Vaughn, you can go," Dixon said. "But I'll need your gun before you leave." Vaughn glared at Dixon as he passed him his gun, but was actually quite relieved about getting the chance to leave, even if he hadn't entirely cleared his name.

Vaughn walked into the living room and straight out the front door. Nothing was going to stop him from going to the hospital. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key ring of keys and found one that would fit into one of the designated CIA cars. Traveling almost twenty miles over the speed limit, Vaughn reached the hospital in record time. After parking, he continued to the ER entrance. The first person he saw there was Weiss, and the moment Weiss caught sight of Vaughn he stopped him.

"Weiss, how is she?" Vaughn asked, looking over Weiss's shoulder as if expecting to see her as Weiss held Vaughn's shoulders and Vaughn in place.

"She's in surgery now," Weiss explained. "We won't know anything more until they're done." Silence held the two friends. Weiss was uncertain to what exactly what had happened. Vaughn in turn was silent in worry about Sydney.

"Where's Jack?" Vaughn asked, hoping that he could be a better source of information.

"In the waiting room. It almost took a whole team of doctors to hold him down so they could look at his wound. That is mainly because he was worried about Syd." Vaughn nodded in understanding as he and Weiss walked into the waiting room. It certainly wasn't hard to pick out Jack Bristow from the crowd of anxious parents and relatives.

He was dressed in one of his typical long black trench coats. A protruding hole showed his white shirt dyed red underneath. He was also pacing, a worried expression on his brow. Vaughn had never seen Jack so emotional. Not even when everyone thought that Sydney was dead, did Jack show any remorse, but that is mostly because he thought his daughter was alive.

"Jack," Vaughn said, stopping Jack in mid-stride. "Do you know—" Before Vaughn could finish his sentence Jack's fist made contact with Vaughn's face and Vaughn found himself thrown backwards as he struggled for balance. The coppery taste of blood filled his mouth as his bottom lip bled freely. Weiss grabbed Vaughn's arm, in support.

Jack meanwhile stood, shaking his right hand slightly as if he was trying to dry it. Vaughn looked on in amazement as he realized that it had been the force of Jack's injured arm that had hit him so hard.

"What—"

"Listen to me," Jack said, his gaze hard and angry. All the worry that had been on his face just mere minutes ago had disappeared. "I don't know what the hell you were thinking on that field, but your negligence is just the reason why Sydney may die."

"My negligence?" Vaughn echoed as he found all the anger he had while he was being question rise up again. "I did not fire at the field."

"If you're trying to be creative and find an excuse by saying that you were aiming for your wife and missed, I must remind you that not only were you not authorized to do so, but your stupidity endangered the whole trade."

"I did not fire during the whole damn trade," Vaughn shouted. "Someone else was there. They fired at the field. I tried to find out who they were, but they disappeared by the time I had gotten to the announcer's booth."

"If you did do as you so earnestly claim, then why was your gun pointed at the field?" Jack asked, his eyes narrowed but focused on Vaughn's face.

"I was prepared to take a shot at the first sign that Lauren would betray us," Vaughn said, looking down once at his shoes, knowing that Jack wasn't going to accept his answer.

"Agent Vaughn, you are never to talk to my daughter again."

"You can't—" Vaughn protested.

"I am not intimidated by you, Agent Vaughn," Jack explained, his voice low. "I am not afraid to hunt you down and kill you if that means you'll be out of Sydney life. All I need is a reason."

"Now that you've expressed yourself, let me be clear. I care about Sydney. What I did or did not do on the field is irrelevant because in the end, all I wanted to do was protect Sydney," Vaughn said with fervor equally assertive as Jack. "Only Sydney has the power to remove me from her life, and since she is in no condition to assert her position, I plan on remaining in Sydney's life."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Tell me Agent Vaughn, for how much longer do you think Sydney will want you in her life after she finds out that you betrayed her to your wife? Not to mention the fact that having seen you married already killed her once." Vaughn was speechless. He had made defended his stance at least a hundred times on that issue, but the fact that Lauren had betrayed him not only by telling the NSC Sydney's secret, but by working for the Covenant, made all of Vaughn's defenses crumble. The truth was that he had betrayed her and there was nothing more that he could add.

"You should return home. You're not needed here," Jack growled, giving Vaughn one final glare before heading towards the nurse's station.