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Disclaimer: The title of this chapter comes from the song 'Homeland' by Carpark North

Today The Wars Have Ended And I Am Changed Forever On

"Yes, and poor Summer has just discovered that, hasn't she? So what will that mean if I let her go? That you can just take her back to that perfect little life she knew before? Just how is she supposed to deal- oomph!" Lauren stopped short as Summer shifted slightly, driving her elbow into her gut. In the moment that it took Lauren to react, Sydney has already fired, hitting her in the shoulder. Rushing forward, she pushed Summer out of the way and then pinned Lauren to the ground, driving her knee into her back.

"This," she said, leaning in towards Lauren's ear, "is how you stop people like you." And with that, she ploughed her own elbow into Lauren's temple, rendering her unconscious.

At the sound of pounding footsteps both Sydney and Summer looked up. Seconds later a frantic Vaughn appeared, followed closely by Weiss and Nadia.

"We heard a shot. Are you ok?" he asked breathlessly.

"We're fine, Vaughn," Sydney replied.

Relief washed all over Vaughn's features as he stepped, almost hesitantly, towards his daughter. "Summer?"

"Don't," Summer said sharply, holding up a hand. "Just don't."

Sydney walked into the kitchen to find Vaughn sitting at the table, his head in his hands.

"Vaughn," she placed a hand in his should and then sat beside him.

He looked up, his expression weary. "What was the decision?"

"No action is going to be taken against Summer," she replied. "She was an innocent pawn in Lauren's game and the general consensus was that discovering the truth is punishment enough."

Vaughn visibly sagged with relief. "What about Mitch?"

"Again, no action…the CIA has actually said they want to recruit him when his completes university. Analysts are still trying to figure out how he got into the system undetected." She gave a small smile. "You should see Marshall- he's walking around the JTF, practically bursting with pride."

"Well, I am glad that somebody got a positive out of this mess."

Sydney reached across, clasping Vaughn's hand. "How is Summer?"

Vaughn shrugged. "She hasn't left her room all day."

"She just needs time."

"She needs a lot more- like a father she can trust."

"Summer does trust you."

"I have lied to her throughout her entire life, Syd. No matter the nature of that lie, how the hell is she going to move past that?"

"Hi, you've reached Summer. Leave a message and I'll get back to you."

Mitch sighed and disconnected the call. He had already left a dozen messages and had the feeling that he wasn't going to be getting a call back that night.

Feeling completely numb, Summer held her mobile to her ear. She had been listening to all the messages that Mitch had left on her phone, and had finally reached the last one.

"Sum, I know this is insane and I am not going to say that I understand what you are going through. But you need to know that you are not alone…not if you don't want to be. Please, call me back."

He was right and wrong. He sure as hell didn't understand- nobody did. And that meant that she was alone.

And that was the last thing she wanted to be.

"Mum."

Sydney turned to see Liam standing in the doorway of the living room. "Yeah?"

He stepped forward, almost hesitantly. "Is Summer going to be ok?"

Sydney sighed. She had had the ugly task of filling Liam in on everything earlier that day. "It'll take some time, but she'll be fine. She is just felling really hurt and angry at the moment."

Liam was silent for a few seconds. "You know, it's really weird to think of Summer having a biological mother…I mean, I knew that she had one. But, it was like, that you were her mum."

Sydney smiled at her son. "Well, in a way, I kind of am."

"Sum thought it to. She used to say that I was lucky, because you were my real mum and—"

Their conversation was cut short when Vaughn walked into the room, looking like a broken man.

"Vaughn?" Sydney stood up. Feeling the tension, Liam made a quick getaway. He did not want any part of it.

"She won't talk to me…nothing," Vaughn said. "I knock on the door and there is no response. Having her scream at me and tell me that she hates me would be better than this. I can't handle all this…nothingness."

"Maybe," Sydney started. "Maybe I should talk to her."

"Syd, I love you, but honestly, I don't know what you can say—"

"Vaughn." All Sydney had to do was raise an eyebrow.

Realization dawned on Vaughn's face. "Syd, no."

"I know for sure that Summer is feeling completely alone right now. She needs to know that somebody out there understands. She needs somebody to tell her that she will get through it."

"Sydney, I can't ask you to do this. To dredge up everything—"

"You are not asking me," Sydney said firmly. "And that girl upstairs, who feels as if she is breaking in two, is my daughter as well. I cannot, in good consciousness, stand by and watch her fall apart."

Vaughn stepped forward and pulled Sydney into a tight hug. "I have to say it again: that ring, your finger- best decision ever."

Lying on her bed and staring up at her roof, Summer made no attempt to move when she heard the knock on the door. She also ignored the second and third knock.

"Summer," Sydney's voice came through the door. "Open up please."

Summer did not respond.

"Please let me in, or I will just break down the door myself…and you know I can and will."

Summer's mind flashed back to when she was about five years old and had locked herself in the bathroom and couldn't get out. It had only taken one kick from Sydney to get her out.

And so, with a loud sigh, Summer made her way across the room. Without a word, she opened the door, stepped back and threw herself back on the bed.

"Summer," Sydney said as she walked into the room and sat on her desk chair. "Summer, would you please look at me?"

Reluctantly, Summer sat up. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk."

"You may not want to, Sum, but you need to."

Summer snorted. "What would you know?"

"I know what you are going thought about now."

"Sydney, look, I love you to death and mean no offense, but there is not a snowballs chance in hell that you could know what I am going through. How on Earth could you possibly understand?"

Sydney did not respond to that question and instead pulled her collar aside to reveal a faint scar on her left shoulder. "Have I ever told you about this scar?"

Summer nodded, slightly intrigued by the subject change. "You said it was a bullet wound- an old job injury."

"Yes. A bullet wound, from when I was shot." Sydney paused. "By my mother."

Summer stared at her incredulously. "What?"

"I understand what you are going through, Sum. Because there was a time in my life when I learnt that my mother was not the woman I had grown up believing her to be."

Summer was shaking her head. "No way."

"I was 26 when I discovered that the woman who died in a car accident when I was 6 was not Laura Bristow, but Irina Derevko- a KGB agent sent to the States to marry a CIA agent. It wasn't long after that we realized she wasn't really dead," Sydney explained. "The first time I saw my mother since I was a child, she shot me. A short time after that she turned herself into the CIA, made it appear as if she were working for us. She lured me in, manipulated me. Made me feel compassion for the woman I had come to call mum. And then she betrayed the CIA…and me."

"So your dad lied to you as well? Jack lied to you?"

"I try not to think of it as lying," Sydney started. "He did all he could to give me a chance at a better life. And that is what your dad was trying to do."

"I…I just don't know how I can trust him when…"

"The only thing that Vaughn was not entirely truthful about was the real nature of you mother. And consider the situation, Summer. What other choice did he have?" Sydney asked. "How were you supposed to grow up as a well-adjusted person- the amazing person that you are today- if you knew the truth about Lauren?"

"I understand that…but it is so hard to think about the way that dad could look me in the eye and lie so easily—"

"It was not easy, Summer," Sydney cut in. "He agonized over it. Every time you asked a question about your mother and he could not give an answer to satisfy you, it ripped him to shreds." Standing up, Sydney made her way over to the bed and placed herself next to Summer. "I know that you are hurting right now. I know that you are feeling humiliated. And I know that you are feeling a seething anger you never thought yourself capable of. But, you need to ask yourself, Summer- who is it that you are really mad at? Your father, yourself or Lauren?"

Summer's face crumpled and she allowed herself to be pulled into Sydney's arms as if she were a little girl again. "How could…why…" she stopped, her voice catching in her throat. "Why would she do that to me?"

"I can't answer that," Sydney replied truthfully. "I still can't answer that for myself."

"I don't care if she doesn't love me- I have never been without that. But for her to pretend and…" she broke off with a sob. "I…I…"

"Hey," Sydney's voice was soothing. She pulled Summer tighter in her arms, running a hand over her hair. "Did you just hear what you said? You do not need Lauren's love…you are one of the strongest people I know, Summer. I am not saying that it will be easy, but I know you will get through all of this."

"I just wish…I just wish that you…" Summer trailed off.

"You know, there is no one way that we can define ourselves," Sydney mused aloud. "But for the sake of this conversation, I can sum up the main roles I play in life under five titles- daughter, agent, friend, wife and mother…I have known you since day one, Summer. We may not have that biological connection, but who needs that? In every other sense you have never been anything less than a daughter to me."

Summer was silent for a few seconds and then whispered. "Thank you."

"You don't need to thank me," Sydney replied. "But you do need to speak to your dad. Talk, yell, scream or whatever. You just need to do something because this silence is killing him."

"I know…" Summer said. "And I will…when I figure out what I am going to say."

That evening, when Sydney and Vaughn had left for a debrief on the Lauren incident, Summer seized the chance to leave her room. Scrawling a quick note, she grabbed her keys and ran out the front door.

On her arrival at her destination, Summer experiences several moments of hesitation. What on Earth was she going to say? Finally, inhaling deeply, she brought up a hand and rang the Flinkman's door bell.

Connor answered it. "Hey Summer," he stepped back to let her inside. "Mitch is in his room if you wanna go up…I'd knock first, though," he added with a snort of laughter. "He's probably experimenting with mum's make up."

Summer's brow furrowed. "Why?"

"You'll see," was all he said.

After the climbing the stairs, Summer paused at Mitch's door and knocked softly.

"Come in," came his muffled reply.

Trying to ignore her shaking hands, Summer did do. Stepping into the room she saw that Mitch was sitting at his computer, his back to her. "Mitch," she said, quietly.

He turned and Summer winced as she caught sight of the nasty purple mottled bruise that was spread on his left temple. "Mitch, I am so sorry."

His face broke into his ever-familiar grin. "Yeah, you got me a beauty, hey?"

Summer stared at him incredulously. "How can you not care about what I did?"

Mitch's expression softened. "I've been told everything, Sum. You were desperate and so you responded with drastic measures."

"Mitch, I knocked you unconscious."

"Summer Vaughn packs quite a punch."

"Mitch, this is not something to joke about."

"I know that," he replied. "How are you doing, dealing with all these recent revelations?"

Summer shrugged as she sat on the edge of Mitch's bed. "Can I phone a friend? I have no idea how to answer that."

"You've got a friend sitting right in front of you."

Summer tried hard to smile but it wasn't long before her façade cracked. "I just want for everything to go back the way it was."

In one swift movement, Mitch move beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "Well," he started soothingly. "The chances of that happening are pretty slim…but given the person you are, I am pretty sure you'll be able to adapt to the way things are now."

"I just have no idea what to do with myself. One second I am bawling my eyes out and the next I am so angry that I want to punch a hole on something."

"Can you warn me when that feeling start to come along?" Mitch said, pulling back with a grin on his face. "Cos the bruise is bad enough."

Summer let out a laugh. "It's not my fault that you don't know how to take a hit."

"I can so," Mitch protested. "You just got a lucky shot in."

"You just give me the word and I will show you that I was definitely not lucky."

"Uh…how about I just take your word for it on that one?"

Summer was smiling. The few seconds where the conversation had strayed away from Lauren was all it took to give her a chance to relax. "Oh, I knoew it was a good decision to come and see you."

"Come on, Sum. When is coming to see me ever a bad idea?"

"You do have a point…" she trailed off, a question plaguing her mind. "What happens now?"

Mitch knew exactly what she was talking about. "Whatever we want to happen."

Summer hesitated. "You do realize what you are getting yourself into? An emotional wreck with severe mother issues."

"And what better match for her than one of the world's biggest- and handsomest- computer geeks?"

"I've basically been working for a terrorist cell for these past few months."

"I have a computer named Bob."

"I believe that our parents were criminals."

"I love Duke Nukem."

"I lure you into this mess by asking for money."

"I used to sleep with a teddy bear named Apple Mac."

"Mitch!" Summer let out. "I am trying to be serious."

"Yeah, and you need to realize that I don't give a damn. So what if you've got all this extra stuff going on? I wouldn't be a friend if I bailed out on you now."

"But we are not talking about just being friends, are we?"

"Sum," Mitch shifted closer. "Whatever steps we might decide to take, we are always going to be each other's friend. Why else do you think we work so well together?"

"You know, you are dangerously hovering on the edge of corny," Summer said, her eyes twinkling.

"Was that a joke? No…from Summer Vaughn? It couldn't have been- I haven't heard a joke from her mouth in yonks."

"Shut up," Summer laughed, giving him a slight shove.

"Sum," Mitch suddenly grabbed her hands and pulled her right close to him.

"What?" she whispered, their eyes only centimetres apart.

"There are two thinks that could make me completely happy right now. The first is to see that emotional wreck with mother issues smiling and laughing." He paused, placing one of his hands on her cheek.

"What's the second?"

"To be able to hold that wreck in my arms and do this." And with that Mitch, leant forward, pressing his lips into hers.

It was late when Summer returned home. Opening the front door, she planned on quietly making her way to her bedroom, but was startled when she spotted Vaughn sitting in the living room.

"Dad?"

He jumped up. "I was just waiting to make sure you got home all right…I, uh, good night." He stepped forward, about to walk past her.

"Dad, wait."

He stopped, surprised. "Yes?"

"I…" Summer struggled to find the right words. "How…how—" she cut short as her throat tightened.

"Summer," Vaughn stepped towards her, his expression concerned. "What is it?"

"How can you look at me like that?" she blurted out.

"Like what?"

"Like it doesn't matter who my mother is at all!" Summer exclaimed. "How can you even look at me?"

"Because regardless of who your mother is, you are my daughter and I love you," Vaughn replied without hesitation.

Summer was silent for a few seconds. "Was I… was I just part of her plan? Was I just another pawn in her game?"

Vaughn shook his head slowly. "Lauren never said anything to me. I only found out when she fell into the coma. If you were another person for her to use, she would have told me."

Summer slumped down onto the couch. "I wasn't part of her plan…" she murmured. "I wasn't part of any plan…"

Vaughn hesitated before sitting next to his daughter. "Sum—"

"If I ask you something," she interrupted, "will you promise to be honest with me? Completely and wholly truthful."

"I promise."

"Did you even want me? You shoot your enemy wife and put her in a coma only to discover that she was pregnant with your child."

Vaughn remained silent, deliberating on his answer.

"Dad, don't you dare try and protect me through your answer. You have been doing that all my life."

"I did struggle when I found out that Lauren was pregnant," Vaughn finally said. "But it was never for a second you that I was struggling with. It was the idea that along with you came a part of Lauren. All I wanted at that stage of my life was to be completely void of her. You made that impossible."

Summer was looking directly at her father, chewing her bottom lip and taking in every single word.

"When you were born, it was completely surreal. I felt this huge love for you but I couldn't bring myself to look at you. I was so scared that I would see Lauren staring back at me."

"Do you?" Summer whispered. "See Lauren in me?"

Vaughn smiled warmly at his daughter. "I see you, Sum," he replied. "It didn't take me long to move past that fear. All it took was a good talking to by Jack to get me to realize there was an entirely different way to look at things." He paused. "And even given all the awful things that Lauren did, I am so grateful that she was part of my life for a short time- because that time means that you are going to be a part of my life forever."

"You can honestly say that? That you actually feel grateful towards Lauren?" Summer asked, somewhat dubiously.

"I can. Whatever she put me through, you are completely worth it. What she did to you, on the other hand, is completely unforgivable." He paused, bringing an arm around her. "I am so sorry for lying. But I just couldn't tell you truth. You were my child and I wanted you to be completely happy. I wanted you to think that you had a mother like everyone else. You deserved to have a mother like that."

"I understand why you did it," Summer replied. "I just needed that somebody to blame…unfortunately you were the easy target."

Vaughn raised and eyebrow. "Easy target? Now that's flattering."

"I do try and aim to please," Summer quipped.

Vaughn was shaking his head. "God, you sound like Sydney sometimes."

"I do?"

"Hmm…you even have some of the same mannerisms, which is no surprise. You used to follow her around when you were little, mimicking her every move."

Summer let out a small laugh. "I don't remember that."

"You should ask her- you used to have us in hysterics some days."

Summer looked up at him. "I have got what I deserve, you know."

"What do you mean?"

"A mum like everybody else…not that you could say that Sydney was like anybody else."

A slow smile spread on Vaughn's face as his tightened his arms around Summer, pressing his lips onto the top of her head. "You are one in a million, Summer Vaughn," he said.

Silence descended upon them for a few seconds until Summer spoke up.

"Everything is going to be different from now on, isn't it?"

"Not everything, Sum."

"A lot of it. Lauren may be in prison, but things have changed. How are we even going to begin handling that?"

"With each other," Vaughn replied, his tone soft. "There are no more secrets in this family any more. The only way that we can go is forward."

Hearing those words come from her father's mouth, Summer did not doubt them for a second.

No more secrets. Forward. Together. They were going to be ok.

THE END

A/N: Well, we have reached another end. Once again I would like to thank everybody who showed me their support, by either reading the fic, and especially posting reviews and letting me know what you think. I am espcially grateful for your all sticking around given the infrequent posts towards the end of the fic. Once again, I would like to apologise for that.
As usual, I have loved writing this story. Given that the central character was one that I created, it was a different fanfic to write. I only hope that you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did creating it.