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Chapter Four:
Keeping Face
Vaughn pulled the car to a stop in the driveway and made to get out but was stopped by Sydney.
"Wait," her voice was barely a whisper.
"Syd, what is it?" he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Are we going to tell them?"
Vaughn did not reply immediately, moving his hand so that he could rub soothing circles on the back of her neck. "I don't know. What do you think?"
Sydney gave a small shrug. "We've never hidden anything from them before, but this is different. What do we say? 'Hey Ana, Billy, your great aunt Elena has decided that one of you needs to kill the other.' We can't tell them that!"
"Well then," Vaughn said, "maybe we should keep quiet about this. At least until we know more about what is going on."
Sydney looked at him, her brow creased. "I don't want for us to have to lie to our kids, Vaughn."
"I don't want to either, Syd," Vaughn said, leaning across and placing a kiss on her forehead. "But for the time being, I think that it's our best option."
Sydney gave him a wry smile. "I guess that both choices kinda suck, hey?"
"Yeah, just a bit," Vaughn replied softly. "But Ana and Billy have already dealt with so much. Let's give them a break before dropping this bombshell."
Sydney nodded as the two of them climbed out of the car. She could only hope that the bombshell would never need to be dropped.
It did not take Ana's instinct to pick up on the weird vibes at the Vaughn household the next morning. Sydney and Vaughn's distracted expressions, hushed voices…something was definitely up.
"What did you do Billy?" Lexi demanded.
Billy, who was still feeling unsettled from his nightmare, just looked at her blankly. "Huh?"
Lexi through up her hands. "This entire family is losing the plot."
"What was that Lex?" Ana asked, walking into the kitchen.
"Mum and dad have lost it," Lexi replied. "I had Fonzie on the couch this morning. Mum looked straight at him and said nothing. Absolutely nothing."
Ana's expression was pensive. "Hmm, you should have seen the way she was looking at me."
"Yeah," Billy chimed in, his focus shifting away from the dream and onto the conversation at hand. "She gave me this huge hug, for no reason."
"Do you think that they're had a fight?" Lexi asked, worriedly.
"No," Ana replied firmly. "If they were fighting, they wouldn't be talking. And they're talking- just not normally."
The three of them shut off the conversation at that point when Sydney and Vaughn both walked into the kitchen.
"Ana, would you be able to take Billy, Lexi and the twins to school this morning?" Sydney asked.
"Sure," Ana replied. "Do I need to pick Zoe and Dana up?"
"No, Weiss is bringing them here. There's some work stuff that we need to go over," Sydney said. "They should be about ten minutes."
"No problem," Ana said. "Lex, can you get your stuff. I have an early class. We'll have to leave as soon as they get here."
Lexi nodded as she jumped up from the table and headed up the stairs. Ana turned to Sydney and Vaughn, contemplating if she should ask them what was going on. There was probably no point. They obviously did not want to share anything at this point in time.
Billy had lapsed back into his own private thoughts, staring down into his bowl of cereal. He didn't need this today. There was his English oral, a test in maths, and hockey practice after school…he couldn't afford to be distracted by a stupid dream.
"What's up mate?" Vaughn asked, sitting down next to him.
"Nothing," he mumbled in reply.
Vaughn paused before answering. "Have you got practice this afternoon?" Billy nodded. "How about I head over and we can shoot around afterwards?"
Billy looked up. "Ok," he said. "Thanks." He doorbell rang at that point and so Billy jumped up. "I'll get it."
A minute later he returned, followed by Weiss, Zoë and Dana. The girls were the spitting image of one another, resembling Weiss with their dark eyes and hair, even though the latter was now a bright red. They had also inherited his mischievous, practical joker personality. The two of them, plus Lexi, were the bane of any teacher's existence.
Five minutes later they had all left for school and Weiss turned towards Sydney and Vaughn. "So, your phone call this morning was pretty cryptic. What's going on?"
Sydney ran a hand through her hair. "We got a phone call from my mother last night."
Weiss just about choked on the mouthful of coffee he'd just taken. "What?" he spluttered. "Irina Derevko called you? Here?" he glanced around, as if expecting her to jump out of the fridge or something.
Vaughn nodded. "We met her out at the warehouse."
Weiss stared at them, dumbfounded. "You went out in the middle of the night to meet with her? Ok, I am sorry, but that is insane. Irina Derevko?"
"Weiss, this is important," Sydney cut him off. "She had something to tell us…about Ana and Billy."
Weiss frowned slightly. "What's she planning?"
"She's planning nothing," Sydney replied. She glanced at Vaughn and the two of them proceeded to tell Weiss what Irina had told them the previous night. Every sordid detail.
"I need you to take this to the CIA for me," Sydney finished. "I'm not an agent anymore. I need somebody who is to initiate things."
A look of confusion crossed Weiss's face. But what about your dad?"
"Come on, Weiss," Vaughn said. "Could you imagine what would happen to Jack if he announced that he had information from Irina? They would throw him back into solitary in a second."
Weiss was nodding slowly. "But does he know about this?"
A look passed between Sydney and Vaughn. "Come on guys, this is me here."
"Yes," Sydney replied. "He knew before we did."
"Right," Weiss said, understanding exactly what Sydney was saying. "I guess that means Jack cannot become 'aware' of this until the CIA does."
"Got it in one," Vaughn said wryly.
"Well then," Weiss clapped his hands together and looked at Sydney. "I guess that we should probably head into work. Get this over and done with."
"Ok," Sydney went to pick up her briefcase but was stopped by Vaughn, who wrapped her into a tight hug.
"I'll see you tonight," he whispered into her ear.
"Oh god," Weiss broke in dramatically. "You guys are as sickening as ever. We may as well be back in Nice."
Both Sydney and Vaughn chuckled, as they broke apart. Neither one of them were about to contradict him. After all, he was right.
"Oh, I have had enough," Ana declared. "No more reading. My eyes are starting to cross." She was stretched out across Misha's bed in his small on-campus room, notes from their Modern Literature class spread before her.
Misha looked up from where he was seated on the floor, leaning up against the bed. "I could not agree with you, more."
With a grin, Ana slammed her book shut. "So what are we going to do now…because there is no way that I am going home."
"Why not? What's going on?"
Ana shrugged. "I've got no idea. But something is definitely up. Mum and dad are acting completely loopy."
Misha grinned. "Isn't that the norm for most parents?"
"Yeah…but this is different," Ana mused aloud. "But enough about my crazy family. Let's go out, do something fun."
"Well, what do you suggest?"
"Anything. Let's just spend some time outside before it rains," Ana replied.
Misha frowned as he looked out the window to see only a clear and bright blur sky. "Before it rains?"
"Ah," Ana ran a hand through her hair. "It's just a stupid saying of mine." She laughed lightly, trying to seem completely careless about the whole thing. Before it rains? She hadn't even realized that she had been saying it.
"Right," Misha said slowly as he stood up and held a hand out to Ana. "Have I ever told you that you can be a very strange girl, Ana?"
Ana just smiled as he helped her off the bed. "You haven't told me personally, but I am kinda used to hearing it."
"I have no difficulty in believing that," Misha said, opening the door. "Before it rains…have you even looked at the sky?"
Ana bit back her laughter. She'd give it an hour.
"Damn," Billy let out, a frustrated expression on his face, as the puck slid right past the open goal. An easy shot and he had missed it.
"You balance is off," a voice called out. Billy turned around to see Vaughn making his way onto the ice.
"Hey dad," Billy cocked his head to the side. "What with the slicked back do? Going for a new look?"
"Nah, the skies decided to open up the second I got out of my car," Vaughn replied, skating to a stop in front of him. "But what's going on with you? I haven't seen you shoot like that since the first time you picked up a stick."
"Nothings going on," Billy replied. "I've just had a long day. And coach really worked us hard this afternoon."
"You're lying through your teeth," Vaughn said with a knowing smile.
"No, I'm not," Billy replied obstinately.
"Come on. I've known you sixteen years, Billy." Vaughn said. "You know that your mother and I like to keep things out in the open."
"Alright," Billy challenged. "Then tell me what was going on with you and mum this morning."
Vaughn's brow creased. "How about we just have a bit of a shoot around?"
Billy grinned. "Sounds good to me. Ready to take me on, old man?"
"Old man?" Vaughn retorted indignantly. "It was this old man who taught you everything you know, which means that it's this old man who can beat you into the ground."
Billy simply skated off. "I'd like to see you try," he called out.
When Sydney walked into the house that night, she could hear loud laughter and voices coming from the kitchen. She paused, taking it all in, a small smile on her face. She loved coming home to the sounds of family- which could be anything from the conversation tonight to a noisy argument.
Making her way down the hall, she entered the kitchen. They were all seated around the table, with plates of Vaughn's infamous lasagne in front of them.
"Hey guys." She sat herself at the table with Ana, Billy and Lexi all chorusing a reply while Vaughn placed a quick kiss in her cheek.
"How come you're so late?" Lexi asked.
"Some new stuff came up at work," Sydney replied vaguely, with a pointed look in Vaughn's direction.
"Anything interesting?" he asked casually.
"Very. The news came in this morning and they're already on top of it."
"On top of what?" Ana asked.
"I can't go into details," Sydney replied. "But there's somebody new that I have to focus on."
"Geez mum," Billy said jokingly. "And you said that you couldn't go into details."
Sydney let out a small laugh. "No sarcasm at the dinner table, Billy," she said, picking up a fork.
She looked around the table. At Vaughn and his reassuring smile, at their three incredible kids and felt her spirits both raise and fell simultaneously. They all had each other, but if Elena continued to her plan, they were going to need each other more than they ever had before.
They had to stick together if they were going to get through this.