Disclaimer: The title of this chapter comes from the song 'Big Brat' by Phantom Planet

Trapped In From All Sides

"Sydney, if you don't want anything to transpire from this, just tell me. Stop with the excuses, because you seem to be clutching at straws here."

"Vaughn, I do want something, but what if what I want isn't…I think that what I am feeling…but…what if I thought—"

"Sydney," Vaughn cut her off with a small smile.

"What?"

"Maybe you should just stop thinking," he said, his voice low. Cupping her face in his hands, he leant forward, pausing as their faces neared. After a second, Sydney nodded and then closed the gap between them, pressing her lips into his.

As the slow kiss deepened, Vaughn wrapped his arms around Sydney, making he feel as if this were the only place that she was meant to be. Vaughn was right. She had to stop thinking. Stop analysing everything and just go with what she wanted.

Who knew how far things would have gone that night. Neither Sydney nor Vaughn got the chance to fin out. The kiss abruptly ended when, with an extremely loud bang, the front door flew off its hinges, followed by a large groups of masked people entered the house.

"What…" Vaughn went to jump up but stopped when one of the masked thugs cocked his gun.

"Stay right where you are and nobody gets hurt…"

Sydney and Vaughn did as they were told. They had no choice but to. They were not armed, there was no way that they could defend themselves against the weapons that these people had.

"Now," the thug continued, "we heard that the two of you paid a visit to a server farm tonight. Where is the copy you made?"

Sydney and Vaughn glanced at each other. There was no harm in giving them their copy. The CIA had the one they'd transmitted on site.

"It's there," Sydney replied, pointing to the laptop on the coffee table, which had Marshall's' device attached. The thug grabbed it, and then motioned to the others, who moved forward, wrenching Sydney and Vaughn from the couch.

"Thank you," he said. "Now, you two will be coming with us. Do as you're told and we'll let you live. For now."

The phone on Will's desk was ringing when he got to work. Quickly, he dumped his bag and the pile of papers in his arms, and picked up the receiver.

"Will Tippin."

"Hey Will, it's Marty."

"Oh hey." Will's reply sounded slightly confused. He was usually the one who contacted Marty, not the other way around. "What's going on?"

"You remember that background check you got me to run? On a Michael Vaughn?"

"Uh yeah." All of Will's common sense was telling him to end this conversation, but his curiosity prevailed. "Why?"

"There was something about it…it just wasn't like an average person's, you know? It was almost as if it had been doctored."

"How does a person doctor a background check?" Will asked.

"That's the thing. So I did some digging, called in a few favours," Marty paused. "Found out something interesting about your friend."

"What?"

"He works for the Government."

Relief washed over Will. "I already knew that. Some state department, bureau thing."

"Will, you have been grossly misinformed," Marty said. "He don't work for no boring bureau- he's deep in, man."

"Deep in? What do you mean?"

"I'm not entirely sure. There was no way that I could have got any concrete details. But you just know, this guy, he ain't your average Joe Blow. Whatever he does, he works in a very powerful place and has some very powerful friends."

"Powerful?"

"Yup," Marty replied. "Anyway, I gotta go. I just thought that you would have liked to know."

"Yeah, thanks. See ya." Will placed the phone back into the receiver, feeling slightly dumbfounded. Just who was this guy who had been playing such a large role in Sydney's life?

Sydney squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them, trying to adjust to the darkened cell. From the safe house, she and Vaughn had been cuffed, blindfolded and escorted to what she assumed to be a van and transported to the facility that they were in now.

Upon being thrown into the cell, the blindfolds had been removed, but not the handcuffs and their windowless surroundings gave Sydney and Vaughn no clue as to their whereabouts.

"Sydney," Vaughn manoeuvred himself along the ground so that he was closer to Sydney. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She continued to blink, frustrated at the lack of light.

"Who—" Vaughn broke off into a cough. "Who do you think they were?"

"I don't know who they were, but I am willing to bet who they worked for."

"Derevko and Sloane," Vaughn said, his tone quiet.

"Yup. Why else would anybody care about us hacking into a seemingly innocent server…" she trailed off. "But how could they find out about it in the first place? Do you think they've got a mole?"

"Who knows, Syd."

She sighed. "Let's just hope that there is something viable on that server. Otherwise, we're on our own."

"Weiss," Dixon called out as soon as he saw him enter the Operations centre. Seeing the expression on Dixon's face, Weiss hurried across.

"What's going on?"

"The safe house in Marseilles was compromised." Dixon explained. "Sydney and Vaughn have been captured."

"What? Who was it?"

"We're are not one hundred per cent certain, but all signs are pointing towards Sloane and Derevko."

"How could they find out the whereabouts of the safe house?"

"That's what we are trying to find out."

"What about our copy of the server? Is there anything on that?"

"Analysis are working on it now." Dixon replied. "Just wanted to warn you. We could be jumping on a plane at any second."

Weiss nodded, trying to swallow the lump of worry that had formed in his throat. "Ok, well, for the meantime, what can I do?"

Sydney's heart skipped a beat when she heard the jangling of keys from the other side of the door. Seconds later it opened and bright light coursed in, causing both Sydney and Vaughn to wince. After hours in darkness it was downright painful to be subjected to such light.

Somebody walked in, and Sydney squinted, trying to determine his or her identity.

"Hello Sydney."

The voice chilled her to the bone. She could have been completely blind and she still would have known whom it belonged to.

"Well, why don't you say something? Maybe you should introduce me to your new friend."

Sydney's eyes started to adjust and she just stared into the cold, soulless eyes of Arvin Sloane, with her suppressed feelings of betrayal and rage resurfacing. Here, right in front of her, was the man who had lied to her, dragged her into a world of terrorism and deceit, and made the chance of ever having a seemingly normal life impossible.

"Hmmm," a smug smile crossed Sloane's face. "After everything that we have been through, I thought that you would have been a little more talkative."

Sydney felt sick. How dare he use the term 'we'. They were two entirely separate entities. The criminal and the woman who wanted to see him burn- both figuratively and literally.

"Well, since you are not going to be polite," Sloane turned to Vaughn. "Mr Vaughn, I assume."

If Vaughn was surprised that Sloane knew his identity, he did not let it show. A steely expression remained on his face. "What do you want?"

Sloane let out a cruel laugh. "I want people to stay out of my business. But you and Sydney couldn't do that, could you? You just had to pry."

Sydney eyes Sloane, drawing in a deep breath. "Where is she?" Her voice remained steady, but inside she was trembling.

Sloane blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Where is she?"

"I'm afraid that I don't know who you are referring to," Sloane replied lightly. "Perhaps you should give me a name."

"Don't give me that crap!" Sydney spat. "Where is she?"

"She's—" Sloane cut off as another figure stepped through the door.

"I am right here."

A/N: Two more chapters to go...