Chapter Eleven:
Flaring Up

"I knew it," Sydney muttered as she, Vaughn and Jack were being driven back to the airport. "Freya is the one we need to go after. Think about it. Our chances of even getting close to Elena are little to none. If a Derevko doesn't want to be found, they're not going to be found. We need to shift the focus onto Freya and finding out the identity of her child."

"All the focus?" Jack questioned.

"Yes," Sydney replied. "We are wasting our time looking for Elena. We've gotten absolutely nowhere."

"What about Ana and Billy?" Vaughn out in. "If they are being followed, we need to warn them. So that they can be vigilant."

Sydney fell silent. For weeks she had wanted to be nothing but completely honest with her children, and now the time had come. Vaughn was right. They had to be made aware of they were going to stay safe. They had to be told.

The only question was how?

"How do you want to do this?" Vaughn asked Sydney. They were behind the safety of their closed bedroom door, stalling.

"Definitely separate," Sydney said firmly. "It'll be somewhat easier if we tell them this alone."

Vaughn nodded. "Ok then."

"And, if you don't mind, I want to take Ana," Sydney said. "She's been so temperamental lately."

"Fine with me." He drew in a deep breath as he reached for the doorknob. "You ready for this?"

"No," Sydney replied bluntly. "But the sooner we get this over and done with, the better."

"Ana." Sydney tapped on her daughter's bedroom door. "Can we talk?"

"Um," Ana glanced at her watch, as she shouldered a bag. "I was actually just about to head out."

"Please," Sydney said. "It's important."

Ana hesitated, but when she saw the expression on her mother's face, she dropped her bag and sat on the edge of her bed. "Ok, I'm all ears."

Silently, Sydney sat down beside Ana. How should she go about this? Just come out with it, or ease into the news? Was there even a way to ease into it? Sydney brought her hands to her face, rubbing her eyes. Maybe she and Vaughn should have thought this over a little more.

"Mum?" Ana prompted. "What is it?"

Sydney exhaled loudly. "Your dad and I…we…there's something we've been keeping from you."

Ana's eyes narrowed slightly. "Will what you're about to tell me explain why you and dad have been acting odd lately?"

Sydney nodded, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Here goes…

"Here you go."

Jack looked up as Weiss walked into his office, folder in hand. "What have you got?" he asked.

"It's mostly background information on Freya- education and stuff like that," Weiss replied. "We still can't get any information on her kid- not even a birth certificate. It's like they don't even exist."

Jack nodded. "Ok thanks. Just keep—" he cut off as his mobile phone broke into the conversation. "Excuse me," he said, reaching into his pocket.

Weiss gave a short nod as he walked out of the office. Jack glanced at the caller ID, but it was a private number.

"Hello?"

"Jack, it's me."

He blinked, completely off out by the sound of Irina's voice on the other end of the line.

"What are you doing?" he hissed. "You know better than I that it's not safe to communicate through the phone line. Where have you been anyway?"

"Trying to find you some answers. I heard you went to Sloane. What did he tell you?"

"That Freya was Katya's daughter. Did you know?"

"Only recently. I was going to let you know through our normal channels, but then something else came to my attention. I had to get hold of you immediately. Hence, the phone call."

Jack's interest heightened at the urgency of Irina's tone. "What is it?"

"Freya's child. It's a son, and I've got photographs."

Ana stood abruptly from the bed, her expression unreadable. Without a word she walked over to her window, looking out onto the street below. The street that she had spent the past sixteen years looking out on. It looked the same, the outside, but everything inside was different.

"Ana," Sydney spoke up quietly. "I know that this is almost incomprehensible, but unfortunately every word is true. And I know that you are trying to deal, but we need to know if anything out of the ordinary has happened lately. You know how intuitive you can be- has anybody given you any reason to be suspicious?"

Ana whirled around from the window, fury written all over her face. "How could you?"

Sydney blinked. "Excuse me?"

"You and dad have spent the past sixteen years going on and on about the importance of honesty. That to keep harmony within our family, we had to keep everything in the open." She took a step forward. "But you must have just been spouting crap, right?"

"Ana—"

'No!" Ana yelled, loudly, causing Sydney to jump slightly. "It goes both ways. It doesn't matter how you decide to sugar coat it, you and dad have been lying. Keeping things hidden. Huge things that pose a direct risk to Billy and myself."

"Ana, we never wanted to keep this from you," Sydney protested. She had never seen her daughter so infuriated before. The closest that Ana had ever been to this was on her ninth birthday when Billy had ripped the head off the Barbie doll she'd just received as one of her gifts. "We hated having to hide it."

"And yet you continued to do so…" Ana trailed off, shaking her head. "You have never kept anything from Billy and me- ever. But you hide this? The fact that somebody- your psycho aunt- wants one of us dead. And that she wants one of us to do the killing. Why would you do that?" she demanded, her voice raising another octave.

Sydney stood and took a step towards her. "Ana, you father and I were only trying to protect you. You and Billy, you have already had to deal with so much. More than anybody else and more than anybody should. We just couldn't bring ourselves to tell you right away. We wanted you to have the chance to live as closely to normal for as long as possible." She paused, taking another step forward. "We did not know how this was going to pan out. We didn't want to put you through this if Elena was going to be stopped."

"Ugh!" Ana threw up her hands. "I don't want to listen to your excuses." She walked across to her bed, grabbing her bag. "You lied. It is as simple as that. And," Ana said, her voice taking on a steely cold edge, "I will never forgive you for that." With that, she strode out of the room.

"Ana!" Sydney dashed after her, chains her down the stairs. "Ana, come back."

"Like hell I will!" The statement was punctuated by a loud slam of the door.

Dejected, Sydney slumped against the wall, closing her eyes. She had known that Ana would not have been jumping for joy at the news, but she had never expected such an explosive reaction.

Hearing the back door open, Sydney's eyes flew open. Vaughn and Billy.

"Syd?"

She moved towards the kitchen, to the sound of Vaughn's voice. "I'm here," she said, stopping in the doorway. Her heart skipped a beat. He was alone.

"Where's Billy?" she asked, her voice worried.

"Out the back with Richie and Fonzie," Vaughn said. "He wanted to be alone."

Sydney visibly sagged with relief. "How did he take it?"

"As well as anybody takes news like that," Vaughn replied. "Ana?"

"She hates us for lying to her. Said that she will never forgive us," Sydney said, running a hand through her hair. "She just stormed out of here. I have no idea where she's gone…we should be out there. We can't let her go off like this."

"Hang on a sec," Vaughn said soothingly. "I think that we need to. Let's just give her a little time to cool down."

"You didn't see her Vaughn, she was furious."

"And she has reason to be," he said wisely. "So, let's give her some space. The last ting Ana would want now is for us to crowd her."

Sydney sighed. Vaughn was right. But that wasn't going to make the wait for Ana to return home any less excruciating.

"It's been hours," Sydney said as she paced by the front window, which looked out onto the street. "Nothing. We should be out there, searching. Now."

Vaughn nodded. "Ok, I'll just let Billy and Lexi know that we're going."

However, he did not get the chance to do so. He had taken on step when a sharp knock was heard on the door. With a quick glance at Vaughn, Sydney hurried to the door, flinging it open. She could not keep the disappointment off her face when she saw that it was Jack.

"Dad."

"Hello Sydney. Can I come in?"

"Actually, we were just about to step out. Ana…we told her the truth and she ran off and we…" Sydney trailed off. "It's been hours and we haven't heard from her."

Concern flickered across Jack's face. "Ana's gone?"

"Yes," Sydney said, as Vaughn came up behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "And we've got no idea where…I know that she is a grown woman and is capable of looking after herself, but with Elena…I don't know if I'm being paranoid, or if my worries are founded."

"Of course they are founded." Jack said bluntly. "Let me speak to you about why I came here in the first place and then I'll help look for her. I'll call in Weiss and Dixon as well."

"Ok," Sydney felt herself calm down a little. "What did you have to tell us?"

"Irina contacted me. She got her hands on a picture of Freya and her son," he pulled a photograph out of his pocket and handed it to Sydney. "Here."

Sydney took one look at the photo and felt her throat constrict. "Oh my god," she whispered, covering her mouth with her hand as her stomach rolled threateningly. Vaughn's grip on her shoulder's tightened, and she heard him inhale sharply.

'What?" Jack asked.

"It's Misha," Vaughn said.

Jack's eyes widened. "You know him?"

Sydney looked up, meeting his gaze. "He's Ana's boyfriend."

Ana opened the car door and climbed in. "Thank you for coming."

Misha reached across and clasped her hand. "You don't have to thank me," he said. "You can always come to me, you know that."

Ana gave him a smile as she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. "Yeah, I do."

"So," Misha shifted the car into gear, "where to?"

"Anywhere but home," Ana sighed.

Misha pressed the accelerator, a small smile playing on his lips. "As you wish."