Santa Barbara

Sydney is standing in a white dress on the beach, staring at the sunset. She has a bitter sweet smile on her face as Vaughn approaches from behind her. He follows her gaze looking at the sunset.

"We never made it here, did we," Sydney asked

Vaughn looks down and sighs. "No, we didn't."

"I guess we won't have the chance now, huh?"

"You never know."

Sydney sighs and looks at Vaughn. "I should have tried harder. We should've, tried harder."

"Maybe it just wasn't meant to be," Vaughn suggested

"I don't believe that," Sydney countered.

Vaughn smiles, "Me neither." He looks at Sydney with tears in his eyes. He looks at Sydney's dress and Sydney follows his gaze. She looks down and sees blood trailing from her dress, and blood streaming from her bullet wounds.

"It doesn't hurt." Sydney said. "Not anymore, anyway."

"You don't deserve this Sydney."

"What?"

"Too die and have someone like Anna, still walking the earth, alive. She should've died..."

"Vaughn...maybe it was just meant to be this way."

"No...I don't believe that, and I will not lose you again Sydney. I won't." A gun then appears in Vaughn's hand and he aims it at Sydney.

Sydney looks at the gun with wide-eyes and tears of her own. "Vaughn..."

"I will not give up on us, Sydney. And I will never leave your side."

"Vaughn...please."

"I can't go on without you, and I will not."

Sydney is now crying, "Please..."

Vaughn stares at Sydney with tears of his own. He then brings the gun to his head and fires.

The shot then echos on as sirens blare on, and an EMT yells, "Clear!" Sydney is now on a stretcher in an ambulance as the EMT shocks her for the forth time. They all stare at the monitor, but Sydney is still flat-ling. Vaughn is sitting beside her, holding her hand. Sydney is still bleeding from the wounds she has suffered. Sark, sitting in the front, looks behind him, worried and watching closely. The EMT looks at his partner. "Do it again!" Vaughn yells at them. The second EMT shakes his head. "Agent Vaughn..."

Vaughn shakes his head, "Do it again!"

The EMT sighs, "Recharging. 600 joules. Clear!"

He once again, shocks Sydney, but this time they find a heartbeat. Vaughn grabs Sydney's hand again. "Sydney?"

"She's breathing," the EMT says. "We need to hurry though."

Sark sighs and turns back, his eyes on the road, just as they were reaching the hospital.

Vaughn sat there, twirling something in his hand. He looked up at the clock once again, and sighed. What's taking so long? he thought. It had been hours since Sydney was rushed into surgery from her ordeal with Anna. Vaughn and Sark had found Sydney unconscious, and bleeding badly. She didn't have a pulse but in the ambulance, they managed to get her back...for the time being that is. Vaughn was angry. At himself for not watching her more, protecting her. And at Anna. He wanted to kill her. He had never felt this much anger for one person since his wife, Lauren, had betrayed him, and everyone he knew. Vaughn stopped twirling the object in his hand, and held it up, looking closely at it, his memories of it streaming into his head. What he was holding was an engagement ring. Sydney's. The one he gave her a week ago after he promised to wed her in Santa Barbara.

Vaughn's thoughts quickly went away when he heard a familiar, and panicked voice. "Where is she?" Vaughn looked up at Jack, Sydney's father, and stood up, slipping the ring in his pocket.

"She's still in surgery," Vaughn answered.

"What happened?"

"Anna shot her. The doctors are doing her best, but, Jack...it doesn't look too good."

Jack looked at Vaughn through his pained eyes and Vaughn could practically read his mind, 'Where were you?'. But Jack said nothing, and he knew not everything went as planned while in the field. Vaughn wanted to say something but was at a lost for words. The person he loved could be dead now, and he was standing here, doing nothing. Jack looked down the hall at a doctor approached them. Vaughn walked up to the doctor, with Jack in tow.

"He is she," Vaughn asked

The doctor looked at Jack, and Vaughn and inhaled deeply. "For now...stable. We were able to stop the bleeding, and extract the bullets, and close her wounds, but..."

"What?"

"Because of the loss of blood, her brain was deprived of oxygen for too long. As if that's not worse, the gun shot wound to the head as well wasn't enough to kill her, but it grazed her and damaged several nerves needed for everyday function."

"Meaning what?" Jack jumped in.

"Meaning...even if Sydney somehow wakes up from her coma she is in now, the damage is too great. She may have no memory, or lapses of memory loss such as short term. She might have lost any emotional feelings of loved ones, she could suffer nightmares, personality disorders..." The doctor trailed off. "We'll keep her here, but, we need to discuss what after measures to keep. Mr. Bristow, Sydney has wrote in her medical will that 'If anything should happen to her, induced coma, or any medical illness that will render her incapable of performing her duty, is subject to immediate termination prior of illness/disease.'"

Vaughn looked from Jack to the doctor. "Wait a minute. You want Jack to decide if he should kill his daughter?"

"Mr. Vaughn, Sydney has stated, in ink, that if she is on a life support machine and/or in a coma, that she does not want to continue in this life. It is no way for someone to live."

"It's no way for someone to die either!"

"Vaughn," Jack softy injected. "I am her father." He looks at Vaughn, who just stares back, angry. Jack looks at the doctor. "If this is what Sydney wants...then I agree."

"Very well. I have some papers you need to sign."

"Can I see her first?"

"Of course."

Hospital Room

Jack walks into the room and closes the door. He walks over to Sydney's bed and sits next to her. Sydney is hooked up on a monitor with an assistant breathing tube attached to her. As Jack is looking at this he winches and looks at Sydney. He smiles at her and grabs her hand. "I never thought I'd see this Sydney. See you like this...having to sign...your death warrant. I have done, a lot of things that I am not proud of, but the one thing I never regretted is you. You give me the strength to be a better man, and a better father. You brought us together, and everyday, Sydney, you make me proud. You are the most beautiful woman I have ever had the privilege of knowing, and you are the kindest, gentlest soul, a fine agent and a loving human being. I don't want to let you go, but as your father, I respect your decision that you have made, Sydney, and I just wanted to let you know...that I love you." Jack, with tears in his eyes, stands up and kisses Sydney's forehead. Then with one last look, he walks out. From a far, Irina watches Jack in the room, and watches him as he leaves, with tears of her own, she turns and walks away.

APO

Nadia walks into Sloane's office and hugs him.

"Nadia," he begins, "I am so happy that you're alright."

Nadia breaks the hug and looks at Dixon, who smiles at her.

"Yeah, we're okay."

"And Eric?"

"He is resting at home. He'll be in later."

"That's good."

"So...what happened? It was a trap?"

"A set-up, yes. By Irina and Anna. That was what I was speaking to Marcus about. Irina and Anna have teamed up. When Sydney was in Paris, she realized it was a set-up, but it was too late."

"We had gone radio silent," Nadia finished.

"Yes. The good news is that from Sydney's Intel on the set-up, we were able to reach you right away."

"So, Anna and Irina had the piece already?"

"No actually, Sark hid it. He and Sydney retrieved it and went to destroy his lab and the machine."

"Were they successful," Dixon asked.

Sloane sighed and looked down. "No," he answered. "The lab was not destroyed. Anna was there, and she shot Sydney."

"Oh god," Nadia breathed. "How is she...where is she?"

"She's in the hospital right now, and her condition is unknown to me at this time..."

Nadia didn't wait for him to finish. Both she got up and walked out. Sloane watched after them as the phone rang. "Hello?" A voice was heard on the other end. "Mr. Sloane?"

"Yes," Sloane answered.

"I believe I have something you might want."

"And what's that?"

"The completed Rambaldi machine."

Hospital

Vaughn is sitting beside a comatose Sydney now, holding her hand. "We never made it Santa Barbara, Syd. I don't agree with your father, or with your decision for that matter. I don't understand it, but I just wanted to let you know...I want you to know, that I love you Syd. So much, and I don't want to lose you again. I promise you, that Anna will pay, and I will make sure of that. I promise." Vaughn kisses her hand as the doctor walks in. "It's time," he says. Vaughn nods and kisses Sydney, then walks out. He sees Jack standing outside the room pacing. Vaughn watches him closely then walks up to him and gets in his face. "How could you do this to her?"

"Excuse me?"

"To Sydney," Vaughn yelled. "How can you just pull the plug like that, and not give her a fighting chance?"

"Agent Vaughn..."

"Sydney deserves more, and you know that."

"Agent Vaughn..."

"Sydney has a chance here to recover, the doctor said that, but you're just choosing to ignore the fact..."

"The fact is!" Jack yelled, "That my daughter is dead! She is in a coma, Agent Vaughn. That is no way to continue living."

"Neither is dying," Vaughn countered.

"I love Sydney, and I would never do anything to harm her. But she was shot three times in the chest and in the head...no one recovers from that. No one."

Vaughn doesn't say anything. In fact, he is at a loss of words. He looks at Jack and realizes how much this is paining him...signing off the warrant to his daughters death. Vaughn could never do that, but somehow, Jack could.

"What's going on?"

Both men turned to see Nadia, concerned and weak.

"They're uh..." Vaughn started. But he couldn't bring himself to say it.

"What?" Nadia pressed.

"They're taking Sydney off life support," Jack said.

"What, why?"

"Because, she's better off. It is what Sydney wants."

Nadia begins to cry and walks up to the window, looking into her room. "It was Anna." Nadia wasn't asking a question, she was stating a fact and Vaughn knew at that point, Nadia wanted a piece of Anna as well. The doctor looked up at Jack, Nadia and Vaughn and then turned off the switch to the machine and pulled out the tube. The monitor started to beep rapidly, until minute or so later, it flat-lined, showing no pulse...no life. The doctor grabbed the chart and looked up at the clock. Nadia began openly sobbing and Vaughn hugged her offering some support. But Nadia couldn't stand there and watch. She didn't even want to hear the doctor call time...but she did. "Time of death...21:49"

TBC