A/N: Here's Chapter 5 enjoy. Thanks Laura and Angela
for all your help with the chapter.

Unraveling Truths

Chapter 5

The next morning Vaughn woke up to his ringing cell
phone. He rolled over and grabbed the phone off of the
nightstand before the ringing woke Sydney. She needed
to sleep after last night's ordeal.

"Hello?" he asked groggily.

"Vaughn, this is Dixon I need you and Sydney in here
right away. We have an emergency that we need to take
care of." He told him.

"We'll be there as soon as possible."

He thanked Dixon and hung up his phone. Vaughn turned
back to face Sydney. He hated to wake her up out of
her peaceful slumber, but they were needed at work.

"Sydney, sweetheart? Dixon just called, we need to get
up and go to work."

"Uhhh… I don't want to get up" she moaned and turned
over onto her side so she was facing away from Vaughn.

"He said that it was an emergency, come on, we really
need to get up." He coaxed her. "As soon as we get
home you can come back to bed if you like."

"All right" she sighed, before sitting up and swinging
her feet off of the bed. Her feet touched the cold
floor and she winced slightly.

She walked to the bathroom and took a shower while
Vaughn went to the kitchen to make them a quick
breakfast. She emerged fifteen minutes later, kissed
Vaughn and ate while he took his turn getting ready to
go.

The ride to the office was silent, but it was a
comfortable silence. Neither of them felt the need to
talk. They thought that if they acted as if everything
was normal, it would make things easier for the both
of them. Because neither wanted to admit what was
going through their head at the moment. Sydney was
hopeful that maybe just maybe her father had found a
lead on her mother. But then why would he go to the
CIA first instead of them? Then it hit her. Maybe he
was caught looking for information on Irina and the
CIA had found out.

As soon as they exited the elevator on the fifth
level, Jack approached them. "Sydney, Vaughn, come
with me," he told them. They followed him into a
vacant briefing room.

"What is it, Dad?" Sydney asked curiously.

"There is no easy way to say this," Jack started,
looking at her regretfully. "Your mother was spotted
last night." The room was so silent, you could hear a
pin drop. Sydney felt herself go weak.

"Sydney, come here, sit down." Vaughn told her. He led
her to a chair and she sat down. A silent tear rolled
down her face.

"Where? When?" she inquired.

"She was spotted by a stoplight camera. I don't know
where she went from there, but I handed off the
information to Dixon. He is going to follow any
leads."

Sydney nodded her head slowly, still letting the
information sink in.

"I'm sorry that you have to go through this, Sydney."
Jack said sincerely. He then hugged her and left the
room.

Vaughn stood behind her and rubbed small circles on
her back. "Are you okay?"

She nodded.

"We have to go to the briefing, are you sure you can
do this?"

"Yes," she said, regaining the color in her face. She
stood and Vaughn led her to where the meeting was to
take place.

They walked into the briefing room together and took
their seats. Jack was sitting across from them.
"You're late!" Dixon scolded them.

"Sorry," Sydney and Vaughn apologized in unison.

"Sydney, as you know, your mother has been in hiding
since she escaped from our custody two and a half
years ago. We have spotted her." He paused and looked
at Sydney, who even though she already knew this news,
was still shocked. "She was caught by a red light
camera, and we followed her to an abandoned warehouse
in Phoenix, Arizona. Intel indicates that she was
acquiring information on Sydney… She knows you are
alive."

"Wait... She thought I was dead?"

"Yes. We believe that she heard that you were dead
through the CIA." Jack answered her question before
Dixon even had a chance to open his mouth.

Dixon continued, "We had placed bugs there before on a
previous mission. We activated them as soon as we
found out that she was there. Unfortunately, we only
heard the ending of the conversation, and we have
reason to believe that she is going to try to kidnap
Sydney."

She was even more shocked by this information than the
portion given to her by her father.

"I'm truly sorry for this, Sydney, but we are going to
have to send you to a safe house in the Caribbean."

"The Caribbean?" the couple asked, shocked.

Dixon nodded. "You are dismissed." He told them as he
walked out of the room.

The three of them were sitting there in silence, not
sure what to say. Jack finally spoke up. "I put in the
request that you go somewhere relaxing. I thought a
'vacation' in the Caribbean would do Sydney good."

"Thank you, I think it will."

"Would you excuse us?"

Vaughn exited the room, wanting to give father and
daughter time to talk alone.

"Sydney, today is Wednesday. Are we still on for
dinner tonight?"

"Yes. I really need to get out of the house." She
smiled

"See you tonight," He told her and walked out of the
room, putting back on his usual poker face.

Sydney walked out to Vaughn's desk. He stood up out of
his office chair and let her take his seat. She smiled
gratefully at him as he sat on the edge of his desk.
"How are you doing?"

"Relatively good." She told him, even though they both
knew that she was feeling horrible.

All Vaughn could think of was that he wanted to hunt
down Irina himself and torture her, so she knew what
pain she put her own daughter through. He wanted
revenge, but he knew that he had to take care of
Sydney.

"Irina… I can't believe she is coming after me. My own
mother is trying to kidnap me. How screwed up can my
life get?" she said painfully. Her eyes filled with
tears, and finally fell from her eyes. Vaughn lifted a
hand and wiped them from her cheeks.

"It will be okay." He kneeled down in front of her and
stroked her hair. "We are going on a 'vacation' in the
Caribbean. That will make you feel better, don't you
think?" A small smile crept onto her face as she
nodded.

After making sure that Sydney was clam enough to go
back to work Vaughn headed back to his desk to finish
a late report. Meanwhile, Sydney couldn't think of
anything but her mother. She wanted to be left alone
she just wanted to be happy with Michael after all she
had been through. Was that to much to ask for?

She thought she was holding to together pretty well in
front of everyone when she turned to look at Vaughn.
She finally felt her brave wall come crashing down,
and a wave unshed tears started to flow.

Vaughn looked up from his desk to see Sydney crying.
He felt his heart shatter when he saw her hurt like
that. He walked up to her and led her to a corner
where there weren't any people nearby. She immediately
fell into his embrace. He held her tightly

"Soon this will all be over. We can get through it.
Together. You're not alone, you never will be. I'll be
with you whenever you need me. Never forget that. I
love you," he told her and kissed her on the forehead.

"Vaughn, thank you so much. I don't know how I could
possibly survive this without you. I will always
remember that you will be there." She pulled back
slightly to look into his eyes. "I love you too, so
much." He rubbed her back soothingly as she sobbed
into his chest.

"Sydney sweetheart, I'm going to ask Dixon if we can
head home. I don't think being here is doing you any
good anymore."

"Thank you."

"I'll be right back, sweetheart."

Vaughn went to talk to Dixon while Sydney gathered
their stuff to head home. She walked into her father's
office to say goodbye, and that she would see him
tonight.

"Dad?"

"Sydney, how are you doing?"

"Ok I guess, considering the circumstances."

"Sweetheart, I promise things will get better. She
will be caught."

"Dad I just don't understand why she's after me. I
mean, hasn't she put us all through enough? I thought
the mother that I loved died when I was six... I guess
she really did die then because the woman that is
doing this now does not resemble the loving mother I
remember. The mother I remember would never do this. I
guess she fooled us all."

"You're right she did."

At this point Sydney was hit with a fresh round of
tears, much like earlier with Vaughn. Jack moved from
his desk, walked over to his little girl and hugged
her, letting her cry on his shoulder.

"Angel, it's ok, let it out. I'm here, let it all go."
he told her softly. Some of the newer people looked at
him strangely. They had never seen the soft side of
Jack before.

At this point Vaughn had just gotten the 'ok' from
Dixon to head home, but he couldn't find Sydney. As he
was turning the corner he ran right into Weiss.

"Hey Weiss, have you seen Syd?"

"Yeah, she was headed to Jack's office. She seemed
upset. Is everything ok?"

"Yeah everything's fine. Thanks."

With that Vaughn walked quickly to Jack's office. When
Vaughn approached the office door, he heard crying and
again it broke his heart that the person he loved most
in the world had to go through all this pain. Vaughn
slowly entered and watched as Jack held his daughter.
Sydney finally pulled back and give her dad a smile.

"I love you."

"I love you too, Sydney."

Vaughn went in slowly and placed a hand on Sydney's
arm.

"Syd, Dixon said we can leave."

"Ok. See you tonight dad."

With that Sydney and Vaughn headed to the car and back
home. The car ride home was quiet. Sydney was too
shaken up to talk. Vaughn still couldn't wrap his mind
around all that was going on. He didn't want to deal
with it. They arrived home and went into the kitchen.

"Do you want anything to eat, Syd?"

" No thanks. I think I am going to read, and maybe try
and take a nap before I have to get ready to go to
dinner with dad."

"All right sweetheart. I love you. Let me know if you
need anything at all, ok?"

"I will, don't worry. I love you too, Vaughn."

Vaughn settled on the couch to watch some hockey
highlights on ESPN. Sydney was relaxing in her own way
she had Alice in Wonderland on her lap she decided to
remember her mother as the loving person she thought
she was.

Meanwhile, Vaughn was waiting to see if his favorite
player was about to score the winning goal when the TV
flicked off, as well as the lights. He felt his way
over to the kitchen and got out a flashlight. He
headed towards Sydney's room. "Are you okay? The power
just went out." He said softly.

He walked closer to the bed when she didn't respond to
the question. As he moved closer he could see her in
the shadows. He could see that she was shaking
violently and crying.

"Sweetheart?"

He knew she wouldn't respond. He could see that she
was curling into herself. He went to her and took her
in his arms.

Meanwhile in Sydney's mind it was wandering back to a
more horrible time.

Flashback

Sydney was sitting in her cell with a blindfold on.
She wa in complete darkness. This was another way to
deprive her of her senses. They hadn't fed her in so
many days she finally lost count. Her mother wanted
something from her she just couldn't figure out what.
She kept hearing mumbles about more Rambaldi
prophecies. She was hoping someone would find her
before they tried to make the prophecy come true.

The only way she stayed sane was to think of Vaughn.
She really hoped he was going to find her soon... She
heard the cell door open, and a man walked in. She
could tell it was a man by the heaviness of his
footsteps.

"Are you ready to be cooperative?"

"No, never. I told you that."

"Very well then. Stand up or I will drag you out of
here by your hair."

Sydney stood, but as soon as she did she fell to the
floor again. The guard just lifted her and dragged her
out. She knew she was probably being taken to be
tortured again. Sydney didn't know how they might do
it this time, but she was getting used to the daily
ritual. She refused to do what they wanted her to do.
At this point she just wished they would leave her in
her cell to die so she could get away from all this
pain. She wanted to be in her guardian angel's arms
again. 'Vaughn, help me' was all she could think.

End of Flashback

Vaughn wasn't sure what was going on, but he was going
to hold onto Sydney until she got through whatever
brought her to this point. She had been fine, so he
guessed the power outage must have brought on a
flashback.

"Shhh Sweetheart, you're not there anymore. It's in
your mind, baby. You're safe. I'm right here, honey.
Please come back, you're safe. They can't touch you I
promise."

Meanwhile Jack was on his way to pick up Sydney for
their dinner. When he pulled onto neighborhood he saw
that all the streetlights were out. After he pulled
into their driveway. he took a flashlight from his
trunk, turned it on and approached the door. Once
there he knocked loudly. Jack didn't get a response so
he tried the door. It was open. As he walked in he
heard whimpering coming from Sydney's bedroom. He
walked to the bedroom and tapped on the door.

Vaughn heard the sound and looked up.

"Jack."

"Vaughn, what's going on?"

"We were relaxing. I was in the living room and she
was in here. Then the power went out, so I came to
check on her and found her like this."

"Her mind is flashing to something that happened while
while she was missing?"

"I think so."

"Michael, we just have to wait for her mind to release
her. she'll need to know we're here for her and that
she's safe."

End of Chapter 5