Alias Fan Gillian
Cadet
Great spoiler. I can't wait to read the chapter.
Illusion Of Sin
- Thread starter YoungStarsOwner
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YoungStarsOwner
Cadet
A/N Sorry it took so long to get this out to you guys and please forgive any errors, it is completely un-beta’d. I am looking for a new beta if anyone is interested let me know!
Enjoy and please give feedback
Erin
Previously:
Rory’s face was twisted in pain and agony and very reminiscent of his daughter’s when he’d told her the truth about Project Christmas. “Yes,” Jack answered calmly as he watched his words destroy his granddaughter. “I had reasons, it was for your protection.”
“I don’t care!” she shouted at him. Her eyes fell on his desk and in rage, in one sweeping motion she had knocked everything off of it including a glass paperweight that now lay broken on the floor.
“Rory stop!” Zack tried to go to her but Jack told motioned for him to back of.
Rory visibly shook as she retrieved a framed photograph from the ground. She trembled, whether it be from exhaustion or rage didn’t matter. She was out of control and everyone in that office knew it. She didn’t flinch as the paperweight sliced into her palm and she picked of the photograph. It was the one of Jack and Sydney, she’d seen the day before. She didn’t feel pain as the blood trickled from her hand and dripped off her wrist splattering on the floor beneath. She only wanted for him, for Jack, to feel as much pain as she was. “I don’t care,” she repeated raising her arm. “You should have told me.” Her arm went higher, holding the photograph tightly in her grasp and her voice grew louder. Any person in the rotunda who had not been aware of the previous events would now know. “She was my mother!” Rory let the photograph go and it smashed into the wall beside the door.
Vaughn dropped the glass he’d been holding and it mixed with the broken shards on the ground. He picked up the photograph from the floor, a look of shock, confusion, or possibly despair filtered across his face as he stood. His eyes met Rory’s; “Sydney was your mother?”
Rory opened her mouth to speak but didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t stop crying and she knew that no words could explain it to Vaughn. In a trembled whisper she spoke only two words to him.
“I’m sorry.”
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>
Illusion of Sin
Part 11: The Magic of Truth and Carousels</span>
“I’m sorry.”
Her voice was heartbreaking to anyone else, but to Vaughn it was devastating. Sydney had a daughter. Sydney Bristow, his Sydney, the woman he’d never been able to get over, was Aurora Summers’ mother and everyone had known it. They’d all hid it from him. The one thing he was certain was that Aurora hadn’t had any knowledge of this. She was an innocent pawn in the deception that was her life. She was apologizing to him, but there was no reason to. It wasn’t her fault.
“It’s alright,” he said softly to her, surprised that the words were coming from his mouth.
“Vaughn,” Dixon suddenly appeared next to him gently laying a hand on his shoulder. “Would you wait in my office?”
“You knew too?” he asked.
“I did,” he nodded and looked up at Rory. “Aurora, I am sorry.”
Rory looked away not meeting his eyes; the sting of betrayal was far too deep. She was vaguely aware of Zack wrapping a white handkerchief around her hand and the discomfort she felt as he pulled it tight and knotted it.
“Marshall?” Carrie walked into the office careful to avoid the shards of broken glass. “Come with me please.”
“Agent Weiss… Zack,” Jack clarified as both turned to look at him. “Please take Aurora down to my car; it’s on the first level.”
“Yes Sir,” he nodded and took Rory’s arm guiding her out of the office.
Rory kept her eyes on the floor as they walked towards the elevator. The entire office seemed to stop and watch every step they took. They’d all heard the screaming and the shouting and now the whispered rumors began. The legendary Sydney Bristow had a daughter, and she was one of their own. First Vaughn had left, then Marshall and Carrie and now Zack and Rory and just by the look on their faces, their co-workers knew that something important had just happened.
The moment the elevator doors closed, Rory surprised Zack by launching herself into his arms. “I’m so sorry I lied to you,” she apologized, her words muffled into his chest. “I just couldn’t stand by and wait, I had to know what happened. I had to find the truth.”
“Shhh, it’s alright,” he whispered in her ear, rubbing her back gently. “I just wish you would have called me, I could have been there with you.” He pushed her away slightly and used his thumbs to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “You shouldn’t have had to do that alone.”
“No,” she shook her head. “I did. Zack, she killed my mother. Irina Derevko, Jack’s wife, my grandmother, she had my mother killed.”
Zack sighed and pulled her close, fighting as she tried to push him away. She gripped the material of his shirt in her fingers as she dug into his shoulders. His one arm wrapped around her waist, holding her body tightly against his. The other stroked her hair as he tucked her head under his chin, and listened to her murmured whispers of ‘she killed my mother.’
~ ~ ~
Jack held the broken photo of his daughter in his hands, mindful of the jagged edges as he watched Rory and Zack leave his office. He returned the photo to his now empty desk and looked up at the only person left in the office. “How long have you known about my granddaughter Agent Weiss?”
Weiss fought the urge to look away. “Since before she was born.”
“And you never said anything, to anyone.”
“Sydney asked me not to. I didn’t even know her name, or why Sydney was keeping her a secret. I wasn’t about to betray her trust to tell you, you had a granddaughter.”
“Even after she died?”
“I got a message from her a few weeks before she died. She told me that her daughter was safe, with her father.” He watched as Jack reached for his coat and slipped it on. “What are you going to tell her?”
Jack ignored Weiss’ question as he walked past him through the doorway and to the elevator.
Turning in the opposite direction, Weiss saw Vaughn grabbing his coat and heading to the elevator after Jack. “Vaughn wait.” Weiss grabbed his shoulder to stop him from going to the elevator. “We need to talk.”
“Weiss, what the hell are you doing?” Vaughn said irritated as the elevator doors closed. “I need to talk to Jack.”
“No you don’t-“
“Do you have any idea what just happened in there?” Vaughn asked. “Sydney is Rory’s mother. She must have been pregnant when she left-“
“Mike stop, I know what you’re thinking.”
“With all due respect Weiss, you have no idea what I’m thinking-“ Vaughn said and proceeded to the elevator.
“Yes I do, I’ve been there-“
Vaughn stopped short and turned to face Weiss. “What are you saying?”
Weiss glanced around at all their co-workers who were trying to watch them descretley, but were failing miserably. “Before she left, I made Sydney swear up and down that Rory wasn’t yours.”
“You what?”
It was the look in his best friend’s eyes that nearly killed him. Weiss had been keeping a secret for the past twenty years and now it was finally coming to light. The truth was finally revealing itself. Weiss stepped towards Vaughn and lowered his voice. “I found the pregnancy test. Vaughn, she left two days later. I made her promise that Rory wasn’t yours. I couldn’t keep that from you.”
“Then who?” he asked almost in disbelief, fearing that he already knew the answer.
“Will Tippin.”
~ ~ ~
Jack saw them before they heard him approach. Rory and Zack stood beside his car. Rory leaned back against the door and Zack held her hands, releasing them every once and a while to wipe the tears from her cheeks. It was then that Jack realized the two were more than just co-workers, much more than just friends. It was the way Zack looked at her, and the way he held her hands, brushing his thumbs over her knuckles in a gentle repetitive manner just to remind her that he was there. It was an intimate gesture; it was a lover’s gesture.
Zack dropped Rory’s hands the moment Jack made his presence known. He nodded to Zack. “I’ll take it from here Agent Weiss.”
Zack looked to Rory for approval and she acknowledged it with a small nod of her head.
Jack opened the passenger door, “let’s go for a drive.”
Rory looked up at him, their eyes connecting for the first time. “I’m sorry about what happened,” she said softly, her voice clearly demonstrating her exhaustion. “I’ve embarrassed you, and myself—“
“Get in the car Aurora.”
She got in the car.
Rory glanced out the window watching the familiar sights pass by, blurring into what resembled an impressionist landscape.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Jack checked his mirrors before changing lanes and taking the next exit off the freeway. “Some place to talk.”
He pulled the car to a stop a few minutes later and Rory was surprised at their location.
Jack pulled off his sunglasses as he stepped out of the car and came around to the other side opening Rory’s door for her.
“A carousel?” she asked suspiciously.
“The Bristows have been coming here for decades, whenever they’ve had something important to discuss.”
Rory eyed the now abandoned carousel. She pulled off her sunglasses, “decades indeed.”
Jack walked over and took a seat on the bench, reluctantly, Rory followed. “Laura and I used to bring Sydney here shortly after we moved from Virginia. She always loved the horses, back when the ride was operational of course. No matter how many times we brought her, to her it was always pure magic. They closed it down about fifteen years ago.” Jack stared straight ahead as he spoke and Rory remained silent allowing him the respect she wasn’t quite so sure that he deserved. “Laura brought me here when she told me that she was pregnant; Sydney was three. Several weeks later, I came back from an operation and there was a message to meet her here. “This was where she told me that she lost baby. There used to be an ice cream vendor down the road a bit. Laura always had a vanilla cone and Sydney, a chocolate. I brought Sydney here, when I had to tell her that her mother died and again when I told her that I was going away on a long trip, to the federal penitentiary,” he added. “The last was about twenty years later when she asked me about her future. The last time I came here, until now, was when Sydney asked me to meet her, but she never showed up. Instead I found a letter telling me that she was leaving LA, leaving the CIA and never coming back.”
“Why do you call her Laura?”
“Because back then, life was simple. My life with Laura might have been built on a lie, but she was still my wife, and the mother of my child.”
“Did you look for her?” Rory asked hesitantly.
“Of course, for months, but she disappeared completely. Sydney didn’t want to be found.” Jack turned to look at Rory for the first time since they’d sat down on the bench. “You would have been about a month old when the rumors started.”
“The rumors that she went rogue?”
Jack nodded, “of course it can’t really be disproved either way. There are those who will always believe the good and others who can’t help themselves but look for the worst.” He touched her hand gently surprised to find it so cold. “Your mother was many things Aurora, but she was not a traitor.”
“You believe that?” she looked up at him, the hope evident in her eyes.
He nodded. “I do.” He took her cold hand in his, warming it with the light touch. “For me it’s not really a choice, but I suppose I choose to believe that whatever she did, or did not do, was to protect you.”
“Did she die because of me?”
Most people would have reassured Rory that it was not her fault, but Jack Bristow was not the average person.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “As far as I know, Agent Weiss was the only person who knew you even existed.”
Rory pulled her hand away, severing the connection to her grandfather. She stood wrapping her arms around herself as if shielding against an imaginary chill. “Except for you, and Dixon and Carrie Flinkman.” She turned to face him. “Dixon, I can understand, but why Carrie? Why Carrie and not me?”
“I can’t discuss that-“
“For Christ’s sake, give me some answers please?”
The last word was said with such earnest, such pleading that he complied. “Carrie Flinkman works for the NSC,” he responded quietly. “She’s what I consider to be a Rambaldi expert-“
“Rambaldi?” Rory interrupted. “He was mentioned in your files, he was a prophet from hundreds of years ago. Nadia and the prophecy were mentioned too and my mother, she was the chosen one…”
“I see you did hack into my personal files,” he said quietly noting the light blush that came over her cheeks.
“I’m not exactly proud of it,” she admitted studying the blood splattered bandage on her hand and adjusting the knot slightly. “I had to know the truth.”
“Carrie would know if there was any mention of a child. There were often several interpretations to his meanings.”
“Did she find any?”
“No,” Jack shook his head. “I couldn’t tell you the truth, without first knowing why Sydney kept you a secret. Your safety has always been the most important factor in all of this.”
Rory leaned back against the car door, her eyes cast down to the ground. She picked an imaginary piece of lint off her skirt and fiddled with the button on her blazer. Jack knew she was nervous. Her fingers were always busy when she was nervous. “I suppose we all have our secrets.” She looked up at him, drawing a piece of windblown hair away from her face. “However, I can’t help but feel that this is all just a conspiracy designed to manipulate me.”
“It was never my intention to manipulate or to deceive you.” Jack stood and tilted her chin slightly, forcing her to look him in the eyes. “I was trying to protect you. If I had told you without all the information-“
“I know, I know. I would have been even angrier that you weren’t giving me the full answers.” She pulled away from his touch, sighing as she shrugged out of her blazer and laid it on the front of his car. The early morning sun was hot on her back and she already knew that it was going to be a scorcher. “That’s why you asked all those questions about my father.” Jack nodded silently. “I don’t know how much you know about my father, how well you knew him before my mother died, but he’s a good man. He loves me. He raised me the best he could, given the circumstances. I always thought he was a little eccentric, but I guess he was just cautious. He was always just trying to keep me safe.”
“You’re angry with him,” Jack noted the change in the tone of her voice.
“Of course I am.” She slumped down on bench and nudged her heels off, feeling the hot pavement scorch the soles of her bare feet. “He lied to me about everything. I understand why he did it, but I’m not a child anymore. He should have told me the truth.”
“He was trying to protect you. He wanted to keep you safe from this life.” Rory looked up at him, her eyes squinting in the sunlight. “If Will, your father, had told you the truth, that he wasn’t really Jonah Summers and that he was hiding you and himself for whatever reasons he had, what would you have done?”
“I’d have wanted to find out why,” she nodded a hint of smile appearing on her lips. “My recruitment, my placement here… are you sure no one knew about me?”
“I investigated everything personally,” he nodded and resumed his seat beside her. “Coincidence seems an understatement, but it is the truth. No one knew that you were really Sydney Bristow’s daughter, at least not that I can find.”
Rory smiled slowly and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “She seemed like a really great woman, my mother…”
“She was, the most amazing, wonderful… person I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.” Jack stood and held out his hand to her.
Rory stayed where she was. “I feel so bad for Agent Vaughn. He never deserved any of this and to find out how he did that she had me and I’m not…”
“He’ll get over it,” Jack answered crisply, his hand still outstretched.
“I am sorry for what I did to you.” Rory studied a spot on the ground unable to meet his eyes. “I embarrassed you and myself… I just couldn’t wait. I had to know the truth of where I came from- I had to know who I really was.“
“Your actions are of no concern to me.” Rory looked up at Jack as he spoke, her eyes full of apprehension. “You’re my granddaughter. You’re family. That’s all that’s important sweetheart.”
Her lips parted into a small smile and then widened when he a slight smile traced his lips as well. She took his hand, squeezing it gently and stood. “Thank you grandfather.”
~ ~ ~
The letters were etched in bronze, uniform and straight on the plaque. She had seen them once before, but looking at them now brought new meaning, new emotions for a woman who before had been just a name, but now was her creator; Sydney A. Bristow.
Rory was actually surprised to even see her mother’s name listen on the plaque honoring fallen agents. She hadn’t exactly died in the line of duty, but knowing the person that Jack was, as well as Agent Vaughn and Director Dixon, they’d probably all fought for her name to be on that plaque.
She’d seen the plaque on her first day and vaguely remembered noticing Sydney’s name as it held the same year of death as her mother. She could never have imagined that a few months later she would learn that Sydney Bristow was in fact her mother. It was a daunting image, looking at the plaque and knowing what so many other agents had done for their country. The plaque was a constant reminder to what could befall herself in the line of duty.
“Agent Summers?”
Rory was startled by Marie, Dixon’s secretary’s voice, but she managed a brief smile at the lady who had always been so kind to her.
“Director Dixon would like you to join the meeting in the conference room, when you’re ready.”
“Thank you Marie.” Rory walked over to her desk and pretended to search for a file, using it as a guise to calm her nerves and prepare herself for the meeting.
Following her discussion with Jack at the old carousel he’d dropped her off at her apartment where she’d managed a few hours of sleep, a shower and change of clothes before returning to the office. As soon as she’d stepped off the elevator the atmosphere of the rotunda had changed. A few co-workers offered smiles or nods of hello, but most tried to pretend they hadn’t noticed her; of course they failed miserably. Rory was quite aware that the rumors were circulating and she decided that there was no reason to try ignoring them or acting as if nothing had happened. After depositing her purse and jacket on her desk she had walked over to the plaque which hung on a wall off to the side and out of the view of most of the office staff. She wasn’t sure how long she’d stood at the plaque until Marie interrupted her, but she assumed it to be longer than she should have.
Rory took a sip of coffee from the cup on her desk and grabbed the two most recent files she had been working on in case they were needed in the meeting. Her eye caught something on the corner of the desk and she moved several files that were covering it. It was a book; an old hard cover copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
“It was your mother’s; I thought you might like to have it.” Rory looked up at Weiss in surprise; her fingers tracing the silver lettering.
“My mother’s?” she whispered, her eyes growing wide and unconsciously filling with tears.
Weiss nodded. “It’s a third edition. I bought it for her to replace the one that was burned in the fire. It was important to her, a first edition; Sydney’s mother had given it to her when she was a child.” Weiss cleared his throat slightly and Rory was touched that he was so open with her. “She gave it to me when she left.”
“Thank you.” Rory’s voice was soft and strained as she struggled to control her emotions.
“Open it.”
Rory complied with his request and was stunned to find a picture of Sydney, holding a baby. Her tears could not be hidden as they splashed down her cheeks and her hands trembled as they touched the photograph.
It wasn’t a very good photograph, showing mostly only a profile of the two, but it was treasured none the less. Sydney sat on a beige sofa with six month old Rory in her lap. Rory looked completely content as she slept resting her cheek against her mother’s chest and Sydney’s head was bent forwards kissing the top of her daughter’s head.
“She never knew I took it.” Weiss tried without success to swallow the lump in his throat, but his voice wavered as he spoke. “I thought it important that you have it. I hope you know Rory, that your mother loved you more than anything in this world. I could see that when she came to see me. She would have died rather than let anything happen to you and if she could see you now, she would be so proud of you.”
Rory nodded and clutched the book tightly to her chest unable to say the words to thank him properly.
Weiss squeezed her shoulder gently and nodded in the direction of the conference room. “I’ll see you in there when you’re ready.”
Rory turned back to her desk and took another sip of coffee, it was cold now, but that didn’t really matter. She wiped the tears away from her cheeks, suddenly grateful for not having worn any make up that day and grabbed the files she had selected. On a last second whim she grabbed the book Weiss had given her and tucked it inside one of the files; she wanted her mother with her on this one.
She slipped into the conference room virtually unnoticed, but was met with an angered discussion between Vaughn, Zack, Weiss, Jack and Dixon. Marshall was trying to get everyone to calm down while Carrie was sitting back seemingly unbothered by the events unfolding in front of her and she gave Rory a small wave and smile when she entered.
“You have no proof that this has anything to do with her mother.”
“That’s why we’re being cautious Zack.”
“She won’t stand for it, I know she won’t.”
“It’s for her protection-“
“She hated the safe house the first time; she’s not going to go for it again.”
“Settle down everyone, arguing about it isn’t going to accomplish anything.”
“Well if we’d have known from the beginning who she really was then maybe this wouldn’t be necessary.”
“Your opinion, Agent Vaughn is of no concern to me.”
“Well maybe that’s the problem Jack, you don’t consider anyone else’s opinion-“
“I was doing what I thought was best-“
“That’s what you claim, but your intentions are always your own-“
“ENOUGH!” Rory slammed her files down on the desk angrily, startling the others who hadn’t noticed her presence in the room and silencing them immediately. “Excuse me, but I am right here thank you very much. While I respect the fact that you all have a past history with my mother, let me remind you that I am not her. It’s been twenty years since she died and forgive me, but I highly doubt that any enemies she had are still alive and would give a damn about me, let alone, even know that I am her daughter.”
“Rory we were just trying-“
“I know what you were trying to do Zack,” she interrupted and calmly took a seat next to him. “And I appreciate the concern, all of you,” she said glancing around at the others. “But I can take care of myself.”
Jack eased back in his chair slightly, paying particular attention out of the corner of his eye to the edge of the table where he had a perfect view of the younger Agent Weiss holding tightly to his granddaughter’s hand. “What are your plans?” he asked knowing her well enough to know that she already had a game plan in mind.
“I want to go home,” her voice showed both relief and exhaustion at the thought. Relief, because she hadn’t seen her father in months, and exhaustion, at the events of the preceding days. “I need to see my dad and make sure that he’s okay. I need to give him a chance to explain, I need to tell him the truth.” She felt Zack squeezing her hand tightly in reassurance and smiled slightly.
“You shouldn’t go alone-“ Vaughn said.
“Yes I do,” Rory shook her head firmly. “I need to do this myself.”
“But-“
“She’ll be fine,” Jack interrupted.
Rory was surprised at his new found confidence in her. She looked him in the eyes and for a fleeting moment she saw the man from the carousel. She saw the grandfather who was just trying to protect his daughter’s child, the man who was just trying to hold on to a piece of his daughter. Whatever insight she’d seen into his life was quickly replaced by the cold demeanor he portrayed as he arranged his files. “Thank you,” she smiled slightly at him determined not to let the abruptivness of his nature bother her.
Dixon cleared his throat and Rory focused her attention on their superior. “I’ll have a plane ready for your departure within the hour,” he stated and removed his wire frame glasses. “I need you back here tomorrow. I’ll give you twenty four hours, but if you’re not back here, I will send someone after you.”
“Thirty six?” she requested. “There’s some place I need to go, before I see my father. Please give me thirty six hours and we’ll be here. Let me do this my way?”
Dixon hesitated slightly, but then agreed. He was unable to say no to the girl who had been through such turmoil in the past twelve hours and he had held a large part in it. “Alright, until then Weiss and Vaughn, I want you to begin a very low key investigation into Andrei Slother. Find out if he and whomever he was working for, has anything to do with Sydney or her death. We still don’t know for sure why Agent Summers was targeted.”
Both Weiss and Vaughn nodded understanding the necessity for keeping the investigation quiet. They didn’t want word getting out that Sydney Bristow had a daughter and ruining the safety that Will Tippin had worked so hard to create.
“Marshall, I want you to continue working on the surveillance video from Paris, keep trying to clean it up and see if we can get a clear image of the gunman.” He shifted his attention to the end of the table where Jack and Zack were. “Zack, I’d like you to assist Jack in reviewing Sydney’s old case files and comparing them to Agent Summers, keep looking for similarities. Go over them with a fine tooth comb, check contacts, sources, aliases, everything. I want to know exactly why Summers was singled out.” He stood to signal the meeting’s end. “And Rory, I’d like to see you in my office before you go.”
They all nodded and began to leave the room. Zack leaned over close to Rory and whispered in her ear. “Meet me on the roof before you go.”
Rory nodded quickly hoping no one had seen. “Inter office dating was frowned upon of course, particularly when the employees were partners, and both Zack and Rory wanted to keep their relationship a secret.
Rory held back a moment wondering if she should speak to Agent Vaughn or Jack, but both men left quickly so that question was answered. She followed Dixon to his office and closed the door as instructed. To her surprise he gestured for her to sit on the sofa and then sat in the armchair directly across.
“Agent Summers… Rory, I wanted to apologize to you.”
Rory’s eyes widened at the soft friendly tone of his voice, it was so unlike the authoritative voice he normally held.
“When you first joined this task force, you reminded me so much of Sydney, but I ignored it. I thought I was just seeing what I wanted to see.”
Rory remained silent, hoping to gain some insight and knowledge of the mother she never knew.
“Even when Agent Vaughn and Marshall brought it up, how much you reminded them of her, I rationalized. We all missed Sydney, but it had been so long since her death. You were this bright young girl, with such drive and passion for your work that I thought that’s all it was. You just reminded me of her. I went with my head and not my heart, and when I did find out the truth, I agreed with Jack, I thought it best that you didn’t know until we determined that your current difficulties had nothing to do with your mother. For that, I apologize. That’s all I needed to say to you, just to apologize. If there was some way that I could make it up to you-”
“It’s alright, you don’t have to apologize.” Rory interrupted. “I know you were just doing what you thought was best and I understand that.” She fingered the gold cross, which hung around her neck as she stood. “There is something that you could do,” she paused, her hand on the door handle and looked back to him.
Dixon stood and nodded. “Whatever you need.”
“When I get back, will you tell me about her?”
“Absaloutley.”
“Thank you.”
“Aurora?”
She turned back to Dixon, a smile on her face.
“It’s an honor to have you as a member of this task force.”
“It’s a pleasure to be here.” She gave him a small wave and closed the door behind her. Sitting down at her desk she immediately noticed a memo from Jack. Her plane would leave in forty minutes from the CIA’s private airfield and the pilot would take her wherever she wanted to go.
Setting aside his note, she opened the Alice in Wonderland book and studied the photo of her and her mother. She was beautiful. She was the prettiest woman Rory had ever seen and looking at the picture, she could see the resemblance between them. The photo she had of her parents was so old and damaged that it was impossible to notice the slightest things about her mother, but with this one she could. Their hair was the same color though Sydney wore hers longer and curled. They had the same chin and nose, different eyes, hers ocean blue like her father’s and Sydney’s chocolate brown. Dimples in the same place and a similar smile. Two women, who were very different, but still very much the same.
Rory’s computer beeped signaling an incoming message. She quickly checked her e-mail and found it to be from Agent Vaughn. She looked over the top of the monitor and saw Vaughn sitting at his desk in the next quad over. She opened the e-mail. There was only one sentence:
This is one of my favorites
-Vaughn
Scrolling down the e-mail she saw that it was another picture of her mother. Sydney was dressed in a Kings hockey jersey, wearing ice skates and holding a hockey stick. She was smiling broadly and looked truly happy.
Rory looked over the top of her monitor and her eyes quickly connected with Vaughns. He smiled slightly at her and she smiled back and mouthed ‘thank you.’ He nodded his response.
Zack!
She’d forgotten about him and his request to meet on the roof. Rory checked her watch, satisfied that she had at least fifteen minutes before she had to leave for the airfield and hurried to the stairwell.
“Hey,” Zack greeted her. “I was getting worried about you.”
“Sorry, I got a little sidetracked,” she took his hand squeezing it gently. “I only have fifteen minutes.”
“Okay,” he nodded without even bothering to mask his concern. He smoothed her hair with his right hand and tucked the escapees behind her ear. “How are you?” he asked brushing his thumb over her temple.
“I’m… I’ll be okay,” she smiled slightly and stood up on her tip toes and kissed his cheek.
“I was worried.”
“About me? Or about us?”
“Both,” he admitted with a slight nod of his head. “We had just decided that there could be an 'us' and then everything happened, but you are more important than any ‘us’,” he stressed.
“You don’t need to worry Zack. What happened last night doesn’t change how I feel about you, or what I want. This entire situation is completely insane. My mother is an ex-CIA/ double agent spy who went missing for two years, had me in secret, and was then killed by her own mother. I was raised by my father who has been running from the witness protection program and has lied to me my whole life. I joined the CIA in secret and am now working in the very office she did with her old co-workers, under her ex-partner and ex-boss with her ex-boyfriend and her father.” Rory let out a deep breath before continuing. “Like I said, this entire situation is completely insane, but the only thing about it that’s keeping me sane… is you.”
“You’re… incredible, you know that?” Zack smiled and framed her face with his hands. He kissed her forehead and then wrapped her tightly in his arms.
Rory clung to him, standing up on her toes and leaning her upper body against his broad chest; she couldn’t get enough, didn’t want to get enough. His hands held her waist, pulling her body against his and she smiled as she realized the possessiveness of his grasp. If there had been a room full of people, each and every one of them would have known that she belonged to him and she agreed with it. It surprised her to feel like this. To suddenly feel so bound to him despite the little time they’d agreed to be more than friends. She felt as if every moment not spent in his presence was wasted. His confession to her, and hers to herself enabled a huge weight to be lifted off her shoulders. She felt free, and she felt loved.
Zack gently pulled away from Rory, “close your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Just do it,” he laughed.
“Alright,” she agreed and shut her eyes. She heard him step away for a moment, and then come back.
“Okay, open them.”
Rory opened her eyes and laughed seeing her surprise. Zack held a chocolate frosted cupcake, garnished with a single, lit, birthday candle.
“We never got to your birthday cake,” he explained taking several steps towards her. “Make a wish.”
“Do I have to tell?”
“If you tell, it won’t come true,” he chided.
“Oh it’ll come true if I have anything to say about,” she said with a smirk and blew out the candle.
“Come sit.” Zack took her hand and led her around a concrete pillar. They sat against the wall and he broke off a piece of the cupcake. “You know what’s great about cake?” he asked turning to face her.
“What?”
“You can share.” He held out a piece to her and she took it giving his finger a suck as she swallowed. “That was evil you do know that don’t you.”
“Of course,” she took a piece of the cake and held it out to him. “Remember that night I got drunk, with the ice cream…”
“God, how do you even remember that, you were so drunk,” Zack laughed and took a bite of the cake she offered. He gave her another piece of cake and this time she latched onto his index finger, first sucking the chocolate off it and then dragging it through her teeth slightly. Zack groaned softly as she did so, his eyes never leaving hers. “Why do you do that?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged and smiled with a glint in her eye. “Maybe I think it’s kind of sexy.”
“That’s entirely the point.” Zack fed her the last piece of cake and then brushed the crumbs away with his thumb. She teased him yet again by drawing his thumb between her lips and sucking it of every last remnant of chocolate cake.
“You’re incorrigible,” he whispered, his voice low and husky as she released her hold on his thumb.
“I know.”
“I have something else for you,” Zack pulled out a small wrapped box from inside his suit jacket pocket and handed it to her. “I saw it a few weeks ago and I thought you might like it.”
“I can’t believe you got me a present a few weeks ago,” Rory grinned and started to unwrap the box.
“I just saw it,” he shrugged. “But… if you don’t like it… just don’t tell me alright.”
“It’s beautiful,” Rory whispered lifting the necklace out of the box.
“You like it?”
“Zack, I love it. Will you fasten it for me?”
“It’s from Spain,” he explained slipping it around her neck. Rory held her hair back with one hand and fingered the silver pendant with the other as he fastened the clasp. “I saw it in one of those outside vendor stalls. “There was this old lady, I mean Rory she was ancient, she said her grandfather made it. She said the stone would bring good luck to whomever wore it and the compass is like one they used hundreds of years ago, and it would help guide the wearer whenever they were lost.”
“It’s beautiful, thank you,” she smiled and let her hair drop back. She checked her watch. “I only have five minutes,” she said softly.
“Promise you’ll call?” he asked tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
“Promise,” she agreed.
“What are you going to say to him?”
“I have no idea,” she sighed leaning her head on his shoulder. “I’ve never lied to my dad like this before Zack-“
“He lied to you too.”
“It’s not the same; he was trying to protect me.”
“You were trying to protect him, how is that different?”
“Because it’s part of my job to keep it a secret from him. Zack, all my life, he’s never asked anything of me. I’ve never had to live up to parental expectations like other people have.”
“You feel like you’re disappointing him by becoming an agent?”
Rory lifted her head off Zack’s shoulder and nodded. “This agency ruined his life. His family thinks he’s dead, he lost his job, he’s living under an assumed name and he raised me based on a lie. I ran straight into everything that he was running away from.”
“You didn’t know, Ror it’s not your fault.”
“That doesn’t change the outcome.”
Zack kissed her cheek. “I’ll be there if you want me, just call.”
“Thank you.”
“So what did you wish for?”
“I can’t tell you, or it won’t come true,” she said slyly. “But I can show you.”
“You can show me hunh,” Zack whispered watching as Rory turned to face him and knelt between his legs.
“Un-huh,” she nodded and trailed a finger down his jaw line before pulling him in for a long lingering kiss.
Zack slipped his hand on the back of her neck drawing her face closer to his. His tongue traced the outside of her lips until she deepened the kiss granting his tongue access to sweep inside her mouth.
Rory moaned softly as she gently dragged her fingernails down his cheeks and neck to his shoulders. She was glad she was sitting for this, because the way Zack was kissing her, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to stand.
It seemed strange to her how easily they were able to cross the friendship line so easily. Then again, maybe there never had been a line. Maybe they had never been friends and were only waiting, suspended in their time together until someone was willing to give them a chance; until they were willing to give each other a chance. Was this love? Was the aching she felt her heart the result of the thought that thirty six hours away from him was just far too long. Was this ache love? She was so inexperienced in her knowledge of love, but she did know that she’d never felt like this before. She longed to have his arms around her waist again, to feel the touch of his hands on her hips and to hear his heart beat as she pressed her head against his chest.
Rory pulled away from him. Sighing regretfully she tucked her head in the crook of his neck and he stroked her hair, dragging his fingers through her silky strands.
“I have to go,” she whispered, her words muffled into his throat.
“I know.” Zack pushed her away and kissed her temple. “Go,” he spoke softly. “I’ll be here when you get back.”
Rory nodded and stood. With one last glance at Zack she disappeared through the door and back into the corridors of the JTF.
~ ~ ~
Rory needed to see it for it to be real. She needed time to think before approaching her father and ruining his life, well the false life he had created out of necessity for her.
She sat on the concrete steps, so white she was sure they must be washed and bleached on a daily basis. She hadn’t been aware of how tightly she’d fisted her hands until the tiny drops of blood escaped from between her knuckles and dotted the white step, drying instantly in the hot sun. She briefly wondered if the maintenance staff would need a scrub brush to remove the stain and she felt guilty but that thought soon faded as she examined her hand. The cut from the picture frame glass that Zack had so carefully wrapped in a white handkerchief had reopened partly and blood was slowly sliding down her palm. People went around her, up and down the large flight of shallow concrete steps. Perhaps they would have thought it odd to find someone sitting there if it hadn’t been the lunch hour. Security guards were stationed up near the main entrance, but if they found her presence to be suspicious they made no movement to demonstrate so. Her arms dropped to her sides and she stood bracing her hands on the step as she stood; bad idea. The contact of the hard material on her open wound stung and resulted in her leaving a bloody handprint on the pristine step.
She walked down the steps and over to a large fountain that was surrounded by stone benches. Finding some Kleenex in her purse she wet them and gently cleaned her hand until the blood was washed away. She approached the memorial slowly, the single white daisy dangled from her fingertips as if simply floating beside her. It didn’t take her long to find the name etched in bronze. Rory wasn’t even sure that it would be here, but she thought she remembered the date and so she took a chance; and she was right. She placed the flower on the top of the memorial and took a step back staring in amazement at the amount of names listed all lost while serving their country. The date listed beside her mother’s name was only a few days earlier than the date her father had given her and Rory had to wonder which one was true.
She remembered the first time she had been here, late fall and it was cold with a freezing wind cutting through everything in its path. That was eighteen months ago and she’d never thought about it since; until last night. She’d seen the name and the date listed on the memorial. Sydney A. Bristow. The name had been just one amongst the hundreds that decorated the marble structure and had quickly been forgotten the first time. It wasn’t the name that had pulled her attention, but the date; two days before her own mother’s death when she was a baby. Of course now Rory knew that they were one in the same. Sydney Bristow was Katherine Summers, Katherine Summers was Sydney Bristow. She traced the bronze etched lettering and blinked away a tear. This was what it was like to finally have a place to mourn for her mother, for the woman she’d never had the chance to know. She’d never had a place before. Katherine Summers had been cremated and her ashes spread at sea. She’d had no family other than her husband and infant daughter and they lacked the money for a memorial, so there had been none. It occurred to her that there might now be a memorial in a cemetery in LA, she hadn’t thought to ask her grandfather if one existed.
Rory backed away from the CIA’s memorial to its fallen agents. She wasn’t entirely sure what she’d expected to find by coming to Virginia, to the CIA’s headquarters at Langley. Was she seeking answers, closure, or only more concrete proof of who her mother really was? She took a seat on one of the stone benches, her mothers name no longer visible as it blurred with the others on the long marble plaque. She drew her legs up on the bench and hugged her knees to her chest, resting her chin on them as she stared at the white petal daisy.
A single white flower was just a simple gesture of remembrance to her mother, but to Rory it felt like so much more. It was the only connection she had.
“Hello.”
Rory turned to see a stranger standing off to the side. He an elder man and was dressed in a dark suit, his hands tucked in the pockets of his black overcoat. Her feet dropped to the ground and she shifted slightly to face him.
“Did you know that the white daisy is the symbol of innocence and truth?”
“I’m sorry,” she said beginning to be uncomfortable with his presence. She glanced quickly at the security guards a hundred feet away. “Do I know you?”
“Do you know me? No,” he shook his head. “Do I know you? Well that’s a much more difficult question.”
“Who are you?”
The man easily detected the fear in her voice as it trembled. “I’m no one important,” he said quietly and took a seat on the stone bench parallel to hers.
“You know me?”
He rubbed his chin roughly and smiled at her. “Not exactly. I know you’re Sydney’s daughter.” He tried to smile reassuringly at her but the look of surprise and panic displayed across her face could not be hidden. “I always wondered what you’d turn out to look like.”
“Who are you?” Rory repeated her voice barely above a whisper, unsure of what she should do. No one was supposed to know who she really was.
PICTURES
Rory wearing the necklace Zack gave her
Another one of Rory
FEEDBACK???
Enjoy and please give feedback
Erin
Previously:
Rory’s face was twisted in pain and agony and very reminiscent of his daughter’s when he’d told her the truth about Project Christmas. “Yes,” Jack answered calmly as he watched his words destroy his granddaughter. “I had reasons, it was for your protection.”
“I don’t care!” she shouted at him. Her eyes fell on his desk and in rage, in one sweeping motion she had knocked everything off of it including a glass paperweight that now lay broken on the floor.
“Rory stop!” Zack tried to go to her but Jack told motioned for him to back of.
Rory visibly shook as she retrieved a framed photograph from the ground. She trembled, whether it be from exhaustion or rage didn’t matter. She was out of control and everyone in that office knew it. She didn’t flinch as the paperweight sliced into her palm and she picked of the photograph. It was the one of Jack and Sydney, she’d seen the day before. She didn’t feel pain as the blood trickled from her hand and dripped off her wrist splattering on the floor beneath. She only wanted for him, for Jack, to feel as much pain as she was. “I don’t care,” she repeated raising her arm. “You should have told me.” Her arm went higher, holding the photograph tightly in her grasp and her voice grew louder. Any person in the rotunda who had not been aware of the previous events would now know. “She was my mother!” Rory let the photograph go and it smashed into the wall beside the door.
Vaughn dropped the glass he’d been holding and it mixed with the broken shards on the ground. He picked up the photograph from the floor, a look of shock, confusion, or possibly despair filtered across his face as he stood. His eyes met Rory’s; “Sydney was your mother?”
Rory opened her mouth to speak but didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t stop crying and she knew that no words could explain it to Vaughn. In a trembled whisper she spoke only two words to him.
“I’m sorry.”
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>
Illusion of Sin
Part 11: The Magic of Truth and Carousels</span>
“I’m sorry.”
Her voice was heartbreaking to anyone else, but to Vaughn it was devastating. Sydney had a daughter. Sydney Bristow, his Sydney, the woman he’d never been able to get over, was Aurora Summers’ mother and everyone had known it. They’d all hid it from him. The one thing he was certain was that Aurora hadn’t had any knowledge of this. She was an innocent pawn in the deception that was her life. She was apologizing to him, but there was no reason to. It wasn’t her fault.
“It’s alright,” he said softly to her, surprised that the words were coming from his mouth.
“Vaughn,” Dixon suddenly appeared next to him gently laying a hand on his shoulder. “Would you wait in my office?”
“You knew too?” he asked.
“I did,” he nodded and looked up at Rory. “Aurora, I am sorry.”
Rory looked away not meeting his eyes; the sting of betrayal was far too deep. She was vaguely aware of Zack wrapping a white handkerchief around her hand and the discomfort she felt as he pulled it tight and knotted it.
“Marshall?” Carrie walked into the office careful to avoid the shards of broken glass. “Come with me please.”
“Agent Weiss… Zack,” Jack clarified as both turned to look at him. “Please take Aurora down to my car; it’s on the first level.”
“Yes Sir,” he nodded and took Rory’s arm guiding her out of the office.
Rory kept her eyes on the floor as they walked towards the elevator. The entire office seemed to stop and watch every step they took. They’d all heard the screaming and the shouting and now the whispered rumors began. The legendary Sydney Bristow had a daughter, and she was one of their own. First Vaughn had left, then Marshall and Carrie and now Zack and Rory and just by the look on their faces, their co-workers knew that something important had just happened.
The moment the elevator doors closed, Rory surprised Zack by launching herself into his arms. “I’m so sorry I lied to you,” she apologized, her words muffled into his chest. “I just couldn’t stand by and wait, I had to know what happened. I had to find the truth.”
“Shhh, it’s alright,” he whispered in her ear, rubbing her back gently. “I just wish you would have called me, I could have been there with you.” He pushed her away slightly and used his thumbs to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “You shouldn’t have had to do that alone.”
“No,” she shook her head. “I did. Zack, she killed my mother. Irina Derevko, Jack’s wife, my grandmother, she had my mother killed.”
Zack sighed and pulled her close, fighting as she tried to push him away. She gripped the material of his shirt in her fingers as she dug into his shoulders. His one arm wrapped around her waist, holding her body tightly against his. The other stroked her hair as he tucked her head under his chin, and listened to her murmured whispers of ‘she killed my mother.’
~ ~ ~
Jack held the broken photo of his daughter in his hands, mindful of the jagged edges as he watched Rory and Zack leave his office. He returned the photo to his now empty desk and looked up at the only person left in the office. “How long have you known about my granddaughter Agent Weiss?”
Weiss fought the urge to look away. “Since before she was born.”
“And you never said anything, to anyone.”
“Sydney asked me not to. I didn’t even know her name, or why Sydney was keeping her a secret. I wasn’t about to betray her trust to tell you, you had a granddaughter.”
“Even after she died?”
“I got a message from her a few weeks before she died. She told me that her daughter was safe, with her father.” He watched as Jack reached for his coat and slipped it on. “What are you going to tell her?”
Jack ignored Weiss’ question as he walked past him through the doorway and to the elevator.
Turning in the opposite direction, Weiss saw Vaughn grabbing his coat and heading to the elevator after Jack. “Vaughn wait.” Weiss grabbed his shoulder to stop him from going to the elevator. “We need to talk.”
“Weiss, what the hell are you doing?” Vaughn said irritated as the elevator doors closed. “I need to talk to Jack.”
“No you don’t-“
“Do you have any idea what just happened in there?” Vaughn asked. “Sydney is Rory’s mother. She must have been pregnant when she left-“
“Mike stop, I know what you’re thinking.”
“With all due respect Weiss, you have no idea what I’m thinking-“ Vaughn said and proceeded to the elevator.
“Yes I do, I’ve been there-“
Vaughn stopped short and turned to face Weiss. “What are you saying?”
Weiss glanced around at all their co-workers who were trying to watch them descretley, but were failing miserably. “Before she left, I made Sydney swear up and down that Rory wasn’t yours.”
“You what?”
It was the look in his best friend’s eyes that nearly killed him. Weiss had been keeping a secret for the past twenty years and now it was finally coming to light. The truth was finally revealing itself. Weiss stepped towards Vaughn and lowered his voice. “I found the pregnancy test. Vaughn, she left two days later. I made her promise that Rory wasn’t yours. I couldn’t keep that from you.”
“Then who?” he asked almost in disbelief, fearing that he already knew the answer.
“Will Tippin.”
~ ~ ~
Jack saw them before they heard him approach. Rory and Zack stood beside his car. Rory leaned back against the door and Zack held her hands, releasing them every once and a while to wipe the tears from her cheeks. It was then that Jack realized the two were more than just co-workers, much more than just friends. It was the way Zack looked at her, and the way he held her hands, brushing his thumbs over her knuckles in a gentle repetitive manner just to remind her that he was there. It was an intimate gesture; it was a lover’s gesture.
Zack dropped Rory’s hands the moment Jack made his presence known. He nodded to Zack. “I’ll take it from here Agent Weiss.”
Zack looked to Rory for approval and she acknowledged it with a small nod of her head.
Jack opened the passenger door, “let’s go for a drive.”
Rory looked up at him, their eyes connecting for the first time. “I’m sorry about what happened,” she said softly, her voice clearly demonstrating her exhaustion. “I’ve embarrassed you, and myself—“
“Get in the car Aurora.”
She got in the car.
Rory glanced out the window watching the familiar sights pass by, blurring into what resembled an impressionist landscape.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Jack checked his mirrors before changing lanes and taking the next exit off the freeway. “Some place to talk.”
He pulled the car to a stop a few minutes later and Rory was surprised at their location.
Jack pulled off his sunglasses as he stepped out of the car and came around to the other side opening Rory’s door for her.
“A carousel?” she asked suspiciously.
“The Bristows have been coming here for decades, whenever they’ve had something important to discuss.”
Rory eyed the now abandoned carousel. She pulled off her sunglasses, “decades indeed.”
Jack walked over and took a seat on the bench, reluctantly, Rory followed. “Laura and I used to bring Sydney here shortly after we moved from Virginia. She always loved the horses, back when the ride was operational of course. No matter how many times we brought her, to her it was always pure magic. They closed it down about fifteen years ago.” Jack stared straight ahead as he spoke and Rory remained silent allowing him the respect she wasn’t quite so sure that he deserved. “Laura brought me here when she told me that she was pregnant; Sydney was three. Several weeks later, I came back from an operation and there was a message to meet her here. “This was where she told me that she lost baby. There used to be an ice cream vendor down the road a bit. Laura always had a vanilla cone and Sydney, a chocolate. I brought Sydney here, when I had to tell her that her mother died and again when I told her that I was going away on a long trip, to the federal penitentiary,” he added. “The last was about twenty years later when she asked me about her future. The last time I came here, until now, was when Sydney asked me to meet her, but she never showed up. Instead I found a letter telling me that she was leaving LA, leaving the CIA and never coming back.”
“Why do you call her Laura?”
“Because back then, life was simple. My life with Laura might have been built on a lie, but she was still my wife, and the mother of my child.”
“Did you look for her?” Rory asked hesitantly.
“Of course, for months, but she disappeared completely. Sydney didn’t want to be found.” Jack turned to look at Rory for the first time since they’d sat down on the bench. “You would have been about a month old when the rumors started.”
“The rumors that she went rogue?”
Jack nodded, “of course it can’t really be disproved either way. There are those who will always believe the good and others who can’t help themselves but look for the worst.” He touched her hand gently surprised to find it so cold. “Your mother was many things Aurora, but she was not a traitor.”
“You believe that?” she looked up at him, the hope evident in her eyes.
He nodded. “I do.” He took her cold hand in his, warming it with the light touch. “For me it’s not really a choice, but I suppose I choose to believe that whatever she did, or did not do, was to protect you.”
“Did she die because of me?”
Most people would have reassured Rory that it was not her fault, but Jack Bristow was not the average person.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “As far as I know, Agent Weiss was the only person who knew you even existed.”
Rory pulled her hand away, severing the connection to her grandfather. She stood wrapping her arms around herself as if shielding against an imaginary chill. “Except for you, and Dixon and Carrie Flinkman.” She turned to face him. “Dixon, I can understand, but why Carrie? Why Carrie and not me?”
“I can’t discuss that-“
“For Christ’s sake, give me some answers please?”
The last word was said with such earnest, such pleading that he complied. “Carrie Flinkman works for the NSC,” he responded quietly. “She’s what I consider to be a Rambaldi expert-“
“Rambaldi?” Rory interrupted. “He was mentioned in your files, he was a prophet from hundreds of years ago. Nadia and the prophecy were mentioned too and my mother, she was the chosen one…”
“I see you did hack into my personal files,” he said quietly noting the light blush that came over her cheeks.
“I’m not exactly proud of it,” she admitted studying the blood splattered bandage on her hand and adjusting the knot slightly. “I had to know the truth.”
“Carrie would know if there was any mention of a child. There were often several interpretations to his meanings.”
“Did she find any?”
“No,” Jack shook his head. “I couldn’t tell you the truth, without first knowing why Sydney kept you a secret. Your safety has always been the most important factor in all of this.”
Rory leaned back against the car door, her eyes cast down to the ground. She picked an imaginary piece of lint off her skirt and fiddled with the button on her blazer. Jack knew she was nervous. Her fingers were always busy when she was nervous. “I suppose we all have our secrets.” She looked up at him, drawing a piece of windblown hair away from her face. “However, I can’t help but feel that this is all just a conspiracy designed to manipulate me.”
“It was never my intention to manipulate or to deceive you.” Jack stood and tilted her chin slightly, forcing her to look him in the eyes. “I was trying to protect you. If I had told you without all the information-“
“I know, I know. I would have been even angrier that you weren’t giving me the full answers.” She pulled away from his touch, sighing as she shrugged out of her blazer and laid it on the front of his car. The early morning sun was hot on her back and she already knew that it was going to be a scorcher. “That’s why you asked all those questions about my father.” Jack nodded silently. “I don’t know how much you know about my father, how well you knew him before my mother died, but he’s a good man. He loves me. He raised me the best he could, given the circumstances. I always thought he was a little eccentric, but I guess he was just cautious. He was always just trying to keep me safe.”
“You’re angry with him,” Jack noted the change in the tone of her voice.
“Of course I am.” She slumped down on bench and nudged her heels off, feeling the hot pavement scorch the soles of her bare feet. “He lied to me about everything. I understand why he did it, but I’m not a child anymore. He should have told me the truth.”
“He was trying to protect you. He wanted to keep you safe from this life.” Rory looked up at him, her eyes squinting in the sunlight. “If Will, your father, had told you the truth, that he wasn’t really Jonah Summers and that he was hiding you and himself for whatever reasons he had, what would you have done?”
“I’d have wanted to find out why,” she nodded a hint of smile appearing on her lips. “My recruitment, my placement here… are you sure no one knew about me?”
“I investigated everything personally,” he nodded and resumed his seat beside her. “Coincidence seems an understatement, but it is the truth. No one knew that you were really Sydney Bristow’s daughter, at least not that I can find.”
Rory smiled slowly and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “She seemed like a really great woman, my mother…”
“She was, the most amazing, wonderful… person I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.” Jack stood and held out his hand to her.
Rory stayed where she was. “I feel so bad for Agent Vaughn. He never deserved any of this and to find out how he did that she had me and I’m not…”
“He’ll get over it,” Jack answered crisply, his hand still outstretched.
“I am sorry for what I did to you.” Rory studied a spot on the ground unable to meet his eyes. “I embarrassed you and myself… I just couldn’t wait. I had to know the truth of where I came from- I had to know who I really was.“
“Your actions are of no concern to me.” Rory looked up at Jack as he spoke, her eyes full of apprehension. “You’re my granddaughter. You’re family. That’s all that’s important sweetheart.”
Her lips parted into a small smile and then widened when he a slight smile traced his lips as well. She took his hand, squeezing it gently and stood. “Thank you grandfather.”
~ ~ ~
The letters were etched in bronze, uniform and straight on the plaque. She had seen them once before, but looking at them now brought new meaning, new emotions for a woman who before had been just a name, but now was her creator; Sydney A. Bristow.
Rory was actually surprised to even see her mother’s name listen on the plaque honoring fallen agents. She hadn’t exactly died in the line of duty, but knowing the person that Jack was, as well as Agent Vaughn and Director Dixon, they’d probably all fought for her name to be on that plaque.
She’d seen the plaque on her first day and vaguely remembered noticing Sydney’s name as it held the same year of death as her mother. She could never have imagined that a few months later she would learn that Sydney Bristow was in fact her mother. It was a daunting image, looking at the plaque and knowing what so many other agents had done for their country. The plaque was a constant reminder to what could befall herself in the line of duty.
“Agent Summers?”
Rory was startled by Marie, Dixon’s secretary’s voice, but she managed a brief smile at the lady who had always been so kind to her.
“Director Dixon would like you to join the meeting in the conference room, when you’re ready.”
“Thank you Marie.” Rory walked over to her desk and pretended to search for a file, using it as a guise to calm her nerves and prepare herself for the meeting.
Following her discussion with Jack at the old carousel he’d dropped her off at her apartment where she’d managed a few hours of sleep, a shower and change of clothes before returning to the office. As soon as she’d stepped off the elevator the atmosphere of the rotunda had changed. A few co-workers offered smiles or nods of hello, but most tried to pretend they hadn’t noticed her; of course they failed miserably. Rory was quite aware that the rumors were circulating and she decided that there was no reason to try ignoring them or acting as if nothing had happened. After depositing her purse and jacket on her desk she had walked over to the plaque which hung on a wall off to the side and out of the view of most of the office staff. She wasn’t sure how long she’d stood at the plaque until Marie interrupted her, but she assumed it to be longer than she should have.
Rory took a sip of coffee from the cup on her desk and grabbed the two most recent files she had been working on in case they were needed in the meeting. Her eye caught something on the corner of the desk and she moved several files that were covering it. It was a book; an old hard cover copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
“It was your mother’s; I thought you might like to have it.” Rory looked up at Weiss in surprise; her fingers tracing the silver lettering.
“My mother’s?” she whispered, her eyes growing wide and unconsciously filling with tears.
Weiss nodded. “It’s a third edition. I bought it for her to replace the one that was burned in the fire. It was important to her, a first edition; Sydney’s mother had given it to her when she was a child.” Weiss cleared his throat slightly and Rory was touched that he was so open with her. “She gave it to me when she left.”
“Thank you.” Rory’s voice was soft and strained as she struggled to control her emotions.
“Open it.”
Rory complied with his request and was stunned to find a picture of Sydney, holding a baby. Her tears could not be hidden as they splashed down her cheeks and her hands trembled as they touched the photograph.
It wasn’t a very good photograph, showing mostly only a profile of the two, but it was treasured none the less. Sydney sat on a beige sofa with six month old Rory in her lap. Rory looked completely content as she slept resting her cheek against her mother’s chest and Sydney’s head was bent forwards kissing the top of her daughter’s head.
“She never knew I took it.” Weiss tried without success to swallow the lump in his throat, but his voice wavered as he spoke. “I thought it important that you have it. I hope you know Rory, that your mother loved you more than anything in this world. I could see that when she came to see me. She would have died rather than let anything happen to you and if she could see you now, she would be so proud of you.”
Rory nodded and clutched the book tightly to her chest unable to say the words to thank him properly.
Weiss squeezed her shoulder gently and nodded in the direction of the conference room. “I’ll see you in there when you’re ready.”
Rory turned back to her desk and took another sip of coffee, it was cold now, but that didn’t really matter. She wiped the tears away from her cheeks, suddenly grateful for not having worn any make up that day and grabbed the files she had selected. On a last second whim she grabbed the book Weiss had given her and tucked it inside one of the files; she wanted her mother with her on this one.
She slipped into the conference room virtually unnoticed, but was met with an angered discussion between Vaughn, Zack, Weiss, Jack and Dixon. Marshall was trying to get everyone to calm down while Carrie was sitting back seemingly unbothered by the events unfolding in front of her and she gave Rory a small wave and smile when she entered.
“You have no proof that this has anything to do with her mother.”
“That’s why we’re being cautious Zack.”
“She won’t stand for it, I know she won’t.”
“It’s for her protection-“
“She hated the safe house the first time; she’s not going to go for it again.”
“Settle down everyone, arguing about it isn’t going to accomplish anything.”
“Well if we’d have known from the beginning who she really was then maybe this wouldn’t be necessary.”
“Your opinion, Agent Vaughn is of no concern to me.”
“Well maybe that’s the problem Jack, you don’t consider anyone else’s opinion-“
“I was doing what I thought was best-“
“That’s what you claim, but your intentions are always your own-“
“ENOUGH!” Rory slammed her files down on the desk angrily, startling the others who hadn’t noticed her presence in the room and silencing them immediately. “Excuse me, but I am right here thank you very much. While I respect the fact that you all have a past history with my mother, let me remind you that I am not her. It’s been twenty years since she died and forgive me, but I highly doubt that any enemies she had are still alive and would give a damn about me, let alone, even know that I am her daughter.”
“Rory we were just trying-“
“I know what you were trying to do Zack,” she interrupted and calmly took a seat next to him. “And I appreciate the concern, all of you,” she said glancing around at the others. “But I can take care of myself.”
Jack eased back in his chair slightly, paying particular attention out of the corner of his eye to the edge of the table where he had a perfect view of the younger Agent Weiss holding tightly to his granddaughter’s hand. “What are your plans?” he asked knowing her well enough to know that she already had a game plan in mind.
“I want to go home,” her voice showed both relief and exhaustion at the thought. Relief, because she hadn’t seen her father in months, and exhaustion, at the events of the preceding days. “I need to see my dad and make sure that he’s okay. I need to give him a chance to explain, I need to tell him the truth.” She felt Zack squeezing her hand tightly in reassurance and smiled slightly.
“You shouldn’t go alone-“ Vaughn said.
“Yes I do,” Rory shook her head firmly. “I need to do this myself.”
“But-“
“She’ll be fine,” Jack interrupted.
Rory was surprised at his new found confidence in her. She looked him in the eyes and for a fleeting moment she saw the man from the carousel. She saw the grandfather who was just trying to protect his daughter’s child, the man who was just trying to hold on to a piece of his daughter. Whatever insight she’d seen into his life was quickly replaced by the cold demeanor he portrayed as he arranged his files. “Thank you,” she smiled slightly at him determined not to let the abruptivness of his nature bother her.
Dixon cleared his throat and Rory focused her attention on their superior. “I’ll have a plane ready for your departure within the hour,” he stated and removed his wire frame glasses. “I need you back here tomorrow. I’ll give you twenty four hours, but if you’re not back here, I will send someone after you.”
“Thirty six?” she requested. “There’s some place I need to go, before I see my father. Please give me thirty six hours and we’ll be here. Let me do this my way?”
Dixon hesitated slightly, but then agreed. He was unable to say no to the girl who had been through such turmoil in the past twelve hours and he had held a large part in it. “Alright, until then Weiss and Vaughn, I want you to begin a very low key investigation into Andrei Slother. Find out if he and whomever he was working for, has anything to do with Sydney or her death. We still don’t know for sure why Agent Summers was targeted.”
Both Weiss and Vaughn nodded understanding the necessity for keeping the investigation quiet. They didn’t want word getting out that Sydney Bristow had a daughter and ruining the safety that Will Tippin had worked so hard to create.
“Marshall, I want you to continue working on the surveillance video from Paris, keep trying to clean it up and see if we can get a clear image of the gunman.” He shifted his attention to the end of the table where Jack and Zack were. “Zack, I’d like you to assist Jack in reviewing Sydney’s old case files and comparing them to Agent Summers, keep looking for similarities. Go over them with a fine tooth comb, check contacts, sources, aliases, everything. I want to know exactly why Summers was singled out.” He stood to signal the meeting’s end. “And Rory, I’d like to see you in my office before you go.”
They all nodded and began to leave the room. Zack leaned over close to Rory and whispered in her ear. “Meet me on the roof before you go.”
Rory nodded quickly hoping no one had seen. “Inter office dating was frowned upon of course, particularly when the employees were partners, and both Zack and Rory wanted to keep their relationship a secret.
Rory held back a moment wondering if she should speak to Agent Vaughn or Jack, but both men left quickly so that question was answered. She followed Dixon to his office and closed the door as instructed. To her surprise he gestured for her to sit on the sofa and then sat in the armchair directly across.
“Agent Summers… Rory, I wanted to apologize to you.”
Rory’s eyes widened at the soft friendly tone of his voice, it was so unlike the authoritative voice he normally held.
“When you first joined this task force, you reminded me so much of Sydney, but I ignored it. I thought I was just seeing what I wanted to see.”
Rory remained silent, hoping to gain some insight and knowledge of the mother she never knew.
“Even when Agent Vaughn and Marshall brought it up, how much you reminded them of her, I rationalized. We all missed Sydney, but it had been so long since her death. You were this bright young girl, with such drive and passion for your work that I thought that’s all it was. You just reminded me of her. I went with my head and not my heart, and when I did find out the truth, I agreed with Jack, I thought it best that you didn’t know until we determined that your current difficulties had nothing to do with your mother. For that, I apologize. That’s all I needed to say to you, just to apologize. If there was some way that I could make it up to you-”
“It’s alright, you don’t have to apologize.” Rory interrupted. “I know you were just doing what you thought was best and I understand that.” She fingered the gold cross, which hung around her neck as she stood. “There is something that you could do,” she paused, her hand on the door handle and looked back to him.
Dixon stood and nodded. “Whatever you need.”
“When I get back, will you tell me about her?”
“Absaloutley.”
“Thank you.”
“Aurora?”
She turned back to Dixon, a smile on her face.
“It’s an honor to have you as a member of this task force.”
“It’s a pleasure to be here.” She gave him a small wave and closed the door behind her. Sitting down at her desk she immediately noticed a memo from Jack. Her plane would leave in forty minutes from the CIA’s private airfield and the pilot would take her wherever she wanted to go.
Setting aside his note, she opened the Alice in Wonderland book and studied the photo of her and her mother. She was beautiful. She was the prettiest woman Rory had ever seen and looking at the picture, she could see the resemblance between them. The photo she had of her parents was so old and damaged that it was impossible to notice the slightest things about her mother, but with this one she could. Their hair was the same color though Sydney wore hers longer and curled. They had the same chin and nose, different eyes, hers ocean blue like her father’s and Sydney’s chocolate brown. Dimples in the same place and a similar smile. Two women, who were very different, but still very much the same.
Rory’s computer beeped signaling an incoming message. She quickly checked her e-mail and found it to be from Agent Vaughn. She looked over the top of the monitor and saw Vaughn sitting at his desk in the next quad over. She opened the e-mail. There was only one sentence:
This is one of my favorites
-Vaughn
Scrolling down the e-mail she saw that it was another picture of her mother. Sydney was dressed in a Kings hockey jersey, wearing ice skates and holding a hockey stick. She was smiling broadly and looked truly happy.
Rory looked over the top of her monitor and her eyes quickly connected with Vaughns. He smiled slightly at her and she smiled back and mouthed ‘thank you.’ He nodded his response.
Zack!
She’d forgotten about him and his request to meet on the roof. Rory checked her watch, satisfied that she had at least fifteen minutes before she had to leave for the airfield and hurried to the stairwell.
“Hey,” Zack greeted her. “I was getting worried about you.”
“Sorry, I got a little sidetracked,” she took his hand squeezing it gently. “I only have fifteen minutes.”
“Okay,” he nodded without even bothering to mask his concern. He smoothed her hair with his right hand and tucked the escapees behind her ear. “How are you?” he asked brushing his thumb over her temple.
“I’m… I’ll be okay,” she smiled slightly and stood up on her tip toes and kissed his cheek.
“I was worried.”
“About me? Or about us?”
“Both,” he admitted with a slight nod of his head. “We had just decided that there could be an 'us' and then everything happened, but you are more important than any ‘us’,” he stressed.
“You don’t need to worry Zack. What happened last night doesn’t change how I feel about you, or what I want. This entire situation is completely insane. My mother is an ex-CIA/ double agent spy who went missing for two years, had me in secret, and was then killed by her own mother. I was raised by my father who has been running from the witness protection program and has lied to me my whole life. I joined the CIA in secret and am now working in the very office she did with her old co-workers, under her ex-partner and ex-boss with her ex-boyfriend and her father.” Rory let out a deep breath before continuing. “Like I said, this entire situation is completely insane, but the only thing about it that’s keeping me sane… is you.”
“You’re… incredible, you know that?” Zack smiled and framed her face with his hands. He kissed her forehead and then wrapped her tightly in his arms.
Rory clung to him, standing up on her toes and leaning her upper body against his broad chest; she couldn’t get enough, didn’t want to get enough. His hands held her waist, pulling her body against his and she smiled as she realized the possessiveness of his grasp. If there had been a room full of people, each and every one of them would have known that she belonged to him and she agreed with it. It surprised her to feel like this. To suddenly feel so bound to him despite the little time they’d agreed to be more than friends. She felt as if every moment not spent in his presence was wasted. His confession to her, and hers to herself enabled a huge weight to be lifted off her shoulders. She felt free, and she felt loved.
Zack gently pulled away from Rory, “close your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Just do it,” he laughed.
“Alright,” she agreed and shut her eyes. She heard him step away for a moment, and then come back.
“Okay, open them.”
Rory opened her eyes and laughed seeing her surprise. Zack held a chocolate frosted cupcake, garnished with a single, lit, birthday candle.
“We never got to your birthday cake,” he explained taking several steps towards her. “Make a wish.”
“Do I have to tell?”
“If you tell, it won’t come true,” he chided.
“Oh it’ll come true if I have anything to say about,” she said with a smirk and blew out the candle.
“Come sit.” Zack took her hand and led her around a concrete pillar. They sat against the wall and he broke off a piece of the cupcake. “You know what’s great about cake?” he asked turning to face her.
“What?”
“You can share.” He held out a piece to her and she took it giving his finger a suck as she swallowed. “That was evil you do know that don’t you.”
“Of course,” she took a piece of the cake and held it out to him. “Remember that night I got drunk, with the ice cream…”
“God, how do you even remember that, you were so drunk,” Zack laughed and took a bite of the cake she offered. He gave her another piece of cake and this time she latched onto his index finger, first sucking the chocolate off it and then dragging it through her teeth slightly. Zack groaned softly as she did so, his eyes never leaving hers. “Why do you do that?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged and smiled with a glint in her eye. “Maybe I think it’s kind of sexy.”
“That’s entirely the point.” Zack fed her the last piece of cake and then brushed the crumbs away with his thumb. She teased him yet again by drawing his thumb between her lips and sucking it of every last remnant of chocolate cake.
“You’re incorrigible,” he whispered, his voice low and husky as she released her hold on his thumb.
“I know.”
“I have something else for you,” Zack pulled out a small wrapped box from inside his suit jacket pocket and handed it to her. “I saw it a few weeks ago and I thought you might like it.”
“I can’t believe you got me a present a few weeks ago,” Rory grinned and started to unwrap the box.
“I just saw it,” he shrugged. “But… if you don’t like it… just don’t tell me alright.”
“It’s beautiful,” Rory whispered lifting the necklace out of the box.
“You like it?”
“Zack, I love it. Will you fasten it for me?”
“It’s from Spain,” he explained slipping it around her neck. Rory held her hair back with one hand and fingered the silver pendant with the other as he fastened the clasp. “I saw it in one of those outside vendor stalls. “There was this old lady, I mean Rory she was ancient, she said her grandfather made it. She said the stone would bring good luck to whomever wore it and the compass is like one they used hundreds of years ago, and it would help guide the wearer whenever they were lost.”
“It’s beautiful, thank you,” she smiled and let her hair drop back. She checked her watch. “I only have five minutes,” she said softly.
“Promise you’ll call?” he asked tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
“Promise,” she agreed.
“What are you going to say to him?”
“I have no idea,” she sighed leaning her head on his shoulder. “I’ve never lied to my dad like this before Zack-“
“He lied to you too.”
“It’s not the same; he was trying to protect me.”
“You were trying to protect him, how is that different?”
“Because it’s part of my job to keep it a secret from him. Zack, all my life, he’s never asked anything of me. I’ve never had to live up to parental expectations like other people have.”
“You feel like you’re disappointing him by becoming an agent?”
Rory lifted her head off Zack’s shoulder and nodded. “This agency ruined his life. His family thinks he’s dead, he lost his job, he’s living under an assumed name and he raised me based on a lie. I ran straight into everything that he was running away from.”
“You didn’t know, Ror it’s not your fault.”
“That doesn’t change the outcome.”
Zack kissed her cheek. “I’ll be there if you want me, just call.”
“Thank you.”
“So what did you wish for?”
“I can’t tell you, or it won’t come true,” she said slyly. “But I can show you.”
“You can show me hunh,” Zack whispered watching as Rory turned to face him and knelt between his legs.
“Un-huh,” she nodded and trailed a finger down his jaw line before pulling him in for a long lingering kiss.
Zack slipped his hand on the back of her neck drawing her face closer to his. His tongue traced the outside of her lips until she deepened the kiss granting his tongue access to sweep inside her mouth.
Rory moaned softly as she gently dragged her fingernails down his cheeks and neck to his shoulders. She was glad she was sitting for this, because the way Zack was kissing her, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to stand.
It seemed strange to her how easily they were able to cross the friendship line so easily. Then again, maybe there never had been a line. Maybe they had never been friends and were only waiting, suspended in their time together until someone was willing to give them a chance; until they were willing to give each other a chance. Was this love? Was the aching she felt her heart the result of the thought that thirty six hours away from him was just far too long. Was this ache love? She was so inexperienced in her knowledge of love, but she did know that she’d never felt like this before. She longed to have his arms around her waist again, to feel the touch of his hands on her hips and to hear his heart beat as she pressed her head against his chest.
Rory pulled away from him. Sighing regretfully she tucked her head in the crook of his neck and he stroked her hair, dragging his fingers through her silky strands.
“I have to go,” she whispered, her words muffled into his throat.
“I know.” Zack pushed her away and kissed her temple. “Go,” he spoke softly. “I’ll be here when you get back.”
Rory nodded and stood. With one last glance at Zack she disappeared through the door and back into the corridors of the JTF.
~ ~ ~
Rory needed to see it for it to be real. She needed time to think before approaching her father and ruining his life, well the false life he had created out of necessity for her.
She sat on the concrete steps, so white she was sure they must be washed and bleached on a daily basis. She hadn’t been aware of how tightly she’d fisted her hands until the tiny drops of blood escaped from between her knuckles and dotted the white step, drying instantly in the hot sun. She briefly wondered if the maintenance staff would need a scrub brush to remove the stain and she felt guilty but that thought soon faded as she examined her hand. The cut from the picture frame glass that Zack had so carefully wrapped in a white handkerchief had reopened partly and blood was slowly sliding down her palm. People went around her, up and down the large flight of shallow concrete steps. Perhaps they would have thought it odd to find someone sitting there if it hadn’t been the lunch hour. Security guards were stationed up near the main entrance, but if they found her presence to be suspicious they made no movement to demonstrate so. Her arms dropped to her sides and she stood bracing her hands on the step as she stood; bad idea. The contact of the hard material on her open wound stung and resulted in her leaving a bloody handprint on the pristine step.
She walked down the steps and over to a large fountain that was surrounded by stone benches. Finding some Kleenex in her purse she wet them and gently cleaned her hand until the blood was washed away. She approached the memorial slowly, the single white daisy dangled from her fingertips as if simply floating beside her. It didn’t take her long to find the name etched in bronze. Rory wasn’t even sure that it would be here, but she thought she remembered the date and so she took a chance; and she was right. She placed the flower on the top of the memorial and took a step back staring in amazement at the amount of names listed all lost while serving their country. The date listed beside her mother’s name was only a few days earlier than the date her father had given her and Rory had to wonder which one was true.
She remembered the first time she had been here, late fall and it was cold with a freezing wind cutting through everything in its path. That was eighteen months ago and she’d never thought about it since; until last night. She’d seen the name and the date listed on the memorial. Sydney A. Bristow. The name had been just one amongst the hundreds that decorated the marble structure and had quickly been forgotten the first time. It wasn’t the name that had pulled her attention, but the date; two days before her own mother’s death when she was a baby. Of course now Rory knew that they were one in the same. Sydney Bristow was Katherine Summers, Katherine Summers was Sydney Bristow. She traced the bronze etched lettering and blinked away a tear. This was what it was like to finally have a place to mourn for her mother, for the woman she’d never had the chance to know. She’d never had a place before. Katherine Summers had been cremated and her ashes spread at sea. She’d had no family other than her husband and infant daughter and they lacked the money for a memorial, so there had been none. It occurred to her that there might now be a memorial in a cemetery in LA, she hadn’t thought to ask her grandfather if one existed.
Rory backed away from the CIA’s memorial to its fallen agents. She wasn’t entirely sure what she’d expected to find by coming to Virginia, to the CIA’s headquarters at Langley. Was she seeking answers, closure, or only more concrete proof of who her mother really was? She took a seat on one of the stone benches, her mothers name no longer visible as it blurred with the others on the long marble plaque. She drew her legs up on the bench and hugged her knees to her chest, resting her chin on them as she stared at the white petal daisy.
A single white flower was just a simple gesture of remembrance to her mother, but to Rory it felt like so much more. It was the only connection she had.
“Hello.”
Rory turned to see a stranger standing off to the side. He an elder man and was dressed in a dark suit, his hands tucked in the pockets of his black overcoat. Her feet dropped to the ground and she shifted slightly to face him.
“Did you know that the white daisy is the symbol of innocence and truth?”
“I’m sorry,” she said beginning to be uncomfortable with his presence. She glanced quickly at the security guards a hundred feet away. “Do I know you?”
“Do you know me? No,” he shook his head. “Do I know you? Well that’s a much more difficult question.”
“Who are you?”
The man easily detected the fear in her voice as it trembled. “I’m no one important,” he said quietly and took a seat on the stone bench parallel to hers.
“You know me?”
He rubbed his chin roughly and smiled at her. “Not exactly. I know you’re Sydney’s daughter.” He tried to smile reassuringly at her but the look of surprise and panic displayed across her face could not be hidden. “I always wondered what you’d turn out to look like.”
“Who are you?” Rory repeated her voice barely above a whisper, unsure of what she should do. No one was supposed to know who she really was.
PICTURES
Rory wearing the necklace Zack gave her
Another one of Rory
FEEDBACK???
spy_youngster
Cadet
sweet...extciting...thrilling... the chapter is amazing! Will is her father? i didn't expect that.
YoungStarsOwner
Cadet
Hi Spy youngster,
glad you liked the chapter. Yep Will is her father, he has been since chapter one.
thanks for reading!
Erin
glad you liked the chapter. Yep Will is her father, he has been since chapter one.
thanks for reading!
Erin
YoungStarsOwner
Cadet
wow where is everyone lol
must be studying for final exams, I wish you all good luck!
E
must be studying for final exams, I wish you all good luck!
E
secret_agent_angel
Cadet
who is that talking to her?????
Alias Fan Gillian
Cadet
Excellent chapter. I can't wait to find out who is taking to her.
I must admit i kinda hoped Vaughn would have been her father.
Thanks for the pm.
I must admit i kinda hoped Vaughn would have been her father.
Thanks for the pm.
Another incredible update, Erin!
I have to admit that I am still kinda holding out that Vaughn will be her real Dad - that Will was just helping Syd out...????
And is that Sloane talking to her??? Sloane or Sark? hmmmm....Can't wait to find out!!!
Thanks for the PM - this fic is GREAT!!!
J.
I have to admit that I am still kinda holding out that Vaughn will be her real Dad - that Will was just helping Syd out...????
And is that Sloane talking to her??? Sloane or Sark? hmmmm....Can't wait to find out!!!
Thanks for the PM - this fic is GREAT!!!
J.
YoungStarsOwner
Cadet
Hey everyone, sorry it's not a new chapter. I promise I'm working on chapter 12, it's just slow going. School's done now but the time that i thought i'd have to devote to writing, isn't happening. I'm working every weekend, volunteering in a first grade classroom, taking a distance studies summer course and looking for a job. I have an interview this wednesday so keep your fingers crossed.
Here is a little sneak peak though at the next chapter and I'm working hard on it
*********
Jonah Summers slipped off his sunglasses as he stepped from the sidewalk to the green grass of the park’s field. His daughter was exactly where he thought she’d be. After arriving home from work he’d found a note on his kitchen table instructing him to meet her at the park. He held back a moment just watching his daughter. Her bare feet dangled, tracing abstract designs in the sand as she sat on the sole swing, swaying in the late summer breeze. He approached her and sat on the adjacent swing but Aurora didn’t acknowledge his presence.
“Hey Ladybug,” Jonah prodded after a few moments. “Penny for your thoughts.”
Rory seemed startled as she looked up at him realizing for the first time that he was there. “Hi dad,” a slight smile traced her lips.
“I was surprised to find your note. I thought you were knee deep in editorials?”
“I was, but I got a break.”
“Everything okay?” Jonah asked noticing how quiet she was.
Rory took her time before answering. “I was just thinking… remember when I was seven and I wanted to fly just like Mary Poppins to see if she was real.”
“Lord, how could I forget,” her father grinned at the memory. “We were renting that little yellow house in Kansas. You climbed out the attic window and onto the roof, umbrella and all. I was afraid you’d break your neck.”
“I was so angry at you for making me come down.” Rory remembered as she watched a little girl of about four or five slide down the orange plastic under the watchful eye of her teenaged babysitter. “But then you told me this wonderful story about how Mary Poppins was magic and she could only be so if children never questioned and just believed.” She swallowed hard trying desperately to clear the lump in her throat. “You always told me such wonderful stories. When I was older I knew that you should be out writing books instead of building appartment buildings and stupid town house complexes.” She didn’t dare glance at her father knowing she wouldn’t be able to go through with her confession if she did. “They were such great stories that lately I’ve been forced to question what is fact and what is fiction; when did the truths stop and the lies begin?”
“Ror-“
“I’m not who you think I am.”
Here is a little sneak peak though at the next chapter and I'm working hard on it
*********
Jonah Summers slipped off his sunglasses as he stepped from the sidewalk to the green grass of the park’s field. His daughter was exactly where he thought she’d be. After arriving home from work he’d found a note on his kitchen table instructing him to meet her at the park. He held back a moment just watching his daughter. Her bare feet dangled, tracing abstract designs in the sand as she sat on the sole swing, swaying in the late summer breeze. He approached her and sat on the adjacent swing but Aurora didn’t acknowledge his presence.
“Hey Ladybug,” Jonah prodded after a few moments. “Penny for your thoughts.”
Rory seemed startled as she looked up at him realizing for the first time that he was there. “Hi dad,” a slight smile traced her lips.
“I was surprised to find your note. I thought you were knee deep in editorials?”
“I was, but I got a break.”
“Everything okay?” Jonah asked noticing how quiet she was.
Rory took her time before answering. “I was just thinking… remember when I was seven and I wanted to fly just like Mary Poppins to see if she was real.”
“Lord, how could I forget,” her father grinned at the memory. “We were renting that little yellow house in Kansas. You climbed out the attic window and onto the roof, umbrella and all. I was afraid you’d break your neck.”
“I was so angry at you for making me come down.” Rory remembered as she watched a little girl of about four or five slide down the orange plastic under the watchful eye of her teenaged babysitter. “But then you told me this wonderful story about how Mary Poppins was magic and she could only be so if children never questioned and just believed.” She swallowed hard trying desperately to clear the lump in her throat. “You always told me such wonderful stories. When I was older I knew that you should be out writing books instead of building appartment buildings and stupid town house complexes.” She didn’t dare glance at her father knowing she wouldn’t be able to go through with her confession if she did. “They were such great stories that lately I’ve been forced to question what is fact and what is fiction; when did the truths stop and the lies begin?”
“Ror-“
“I’m not who you think I am.”
YoungStarsOwner
Cadet
Awwww sorry Amisha I'll be sure to remember next time. I'll offer you hope, the next chapter is actually done!!! it's at a wonderful beta right now and i think you're going to like it.
E
E
Alias Fan Gillian
Cadet
Great sneak peak. I can't wait to read the next chapter.
YoungStarsOwner
Cadet
A/N--> Here is the new chapter, I hope you all enjoy. Thanks to Beta Bev!
Important Note that the next chapter I am writing will be Rated NC-17. It is an Optional chapter, so you do not have to read it to follow the story. If you want to read it, you'll have to ask for a pm for it b/c it will not be posted in THIS thread but in another thread in the rated R section. So if you want to read it ask for a PM
That said, i hope you like it and quotey reviews are always my favorite!
lol
ERIN
Previously:
“Hello.”
Rory turned to see a stranger standing off to the side. He was an elderly man dressed in a dark suit, his hands tucked in the pockets of his black overcoat. Her feet dropped to the ground and she shifted slightly to face him.
“Did you know that the white daisy is the symbol of innocence and truth?”
“I’m sorry,” she said beginning to be uncomfortable with his presence. She glanced quickly at the security guards a hundred feet away. “Do I know you?”
“Do you know me? No,” he shook his head. “Do I know you? Well that’s a much more difficult question.”
“Who are you?”
The man easily detected the fear in her voice as it trembled. “I’m no one important,” he said quietly and took a seat on the stone bench parallel to hers.
“You know me?”
He rubbed his chin roughly and smiled at her. “Not exactly. I know you’re Sydney’s daughter.” He tried to smile reassuringly at her but the look of surprise and panic displayed across her face could not be hidden. “I always wondered what you’d turn out to be like.”
“Who are you?” Rory repeated, her voice barely above a whisper, unsure of what she should do. No one was supposed to know who she really was.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Illusion of Sin
Part 12: The Truth</span>
The man smiled gently as he leaned forwards, his hands resting on his knees. “I’m no one important,” he repeated.
Rory was not convinced. Her eyes darted to the security guard ensuring that he was still nearby. The man followed her gaze and spoke again.
“I’m not a threat to you Agent Summers. My name is John Kendall; I used to work with your mother.”
“You knew my mother?” Rory asked stunned, a thousand questions coming instantly to her mind. “You were friends?”
Kendall chuckled softly, “no not friends. Friends is a bit too strong of a description. I was her superior, her handler for a time.”
Rory turned on the bench to face him fully as she recalled his name from Jack’s files. “You were her handler when she went missing for two years.”
“Correct,” he smiled warmly.
“Why was she killed?”
Kendall hesitated before speaking, not wanting to give her false hope. “I don’t know. Her death was a surprise; I suppose I always thought that she was invincible. Your mother was a good agent and I never would have thought that she was pregnant when she left LA. She tracked me down in Maryland two months later and it was a fluke that I even found out.”
“She didn’t want anyone to know about me,” Rory mumbled.
Kendall nodded sympathetically. “She had her reasons, what they were I don’t know. I know that she was running from something or someone; she wouldn’t say; only that it was not work related. She needed a place to stay, to…recuperate so to speak, it was on the third day that I called her on it and she admitted that she was pregnant. I assumed that you were Agent Vaughn’s but she denied it and I wonder if that was why she was keeping you a secret.
“After her death, I made a few discrete inquiries with trusted contacts, but no information about her child was ever found.” Kendall reached out and tilted her chin upwards slightly. “Over the years, I often wondered if you would turn out to look like your mother, I’m happy to see I was right.”
Rory smiled, her cheeks blushing slightly at his comment. “So you never knew about me either?”
“Not until about forty five minutes ago when I got a call from Director Dixon,” Kendall explained. “He informed me of who you were and that you had requested to come to Virginia before going to see your father. It was easy to figure out that you would be coming here.
“As I said before, I knew you most likely existed, but I never had any real proof. As soon as I saw you today, it was like stepping back in time.” He smiled genuinely at her. “I have it on the highest of authority that you are exactly like your mother in the field. If I were one of the enemies, I’d be extremely worried.”
Rory blushed even more and sat silently for several moments as she took everything in. Her right hand reached up to fiddle with the necklace Zack had given her. “My flight doesn’t leave for another hour, do you have time for coffee?” she asked hopefully, eager for the chance to find out more about her mother.
“Of course.”
Kendall stood grimacing as his joints cracked and Rory smiled as he made a comment about his old bones. She was surprised as he pulled out a yellow rose from the inside pocket of his suit and gently laid it on the memorial next to the daisy.
“Thank you,” she said softly, blinking back tears as she ran her fingertips over the engraved letters of her mother’s name one last time.
~ ~ ~
I took my love and I took it down
Climbed a mountain then I turned around
And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide brought me down
Jonah Summers slipped off his sunglasses as he stepped from the sidewalk to the green grass of the park’s field. His daughter was exactly where he thought she’d be. After arriving home from work he’d found a note on his kitchen table instructing him to meet her at the park. He held back a moment just watching his daughter. She wore a white sundress with red flowers that fluttered around her legs as carefree as the gentle wind. Her bare feet dangled, tracing abstract designs in the sand as she sat on the sole swing, swaying in the late summer breeze. He approached her and sat on the adjacent swing but Aurora didn’t acknowledge his presence.
“Hey, Ladybug,” Jonah prodded after a few moments. “Penny for your thoughts.”
Rory seemed startled as she looked up at him realizing for the first time that he was there. “Hi Dad,” a slight smile traced her lips.
“I was surprised to find your note. I thought you were knee deep in editorials?”
“I was, but I got a break.”
“Everything okay?” Jonah asked noticing how quiet she was.
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life
Rory took her time before answering. “I was just thinking… remember when I was six and I wanted to fly just like Mary Poppins?”
“Lord, how could I forget,” her father grinned at the memory. “We were renting that little yellow house in Kansas. You climbed out the attic window and onto the roof, umbrella, and all. I was afraid you’d break your neck.”
“I was so angry at you for making me come down.” Rory remembered as she watched a little girl of about four or five slide down the orange plastic slide under the semi-watchful eye of her teenaged babysitter. “But then you told me this wonderful story about how Mary Poppins was magic and she could only be so if children never questioned and just believed.” She swallowed hard trying desperately to clear the lump in her throat. “You always told me such wonderful stories.
“When I was older I knew that you should be out writing books instead of building apartment buildings and stupid town house complexes.” She didn’t dare glance at her father knowing she wouldn’t be able to go through with her confession if she did. “They were such great stories that lately I’ve been forced to question what is fact and what is fiction; when did the truths stop and the lies begin?”
“Ror-“
“I’m not who you think I am.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Dad, I don’t work for a publishing company.” Rory choked on her words as she spoke and tears streamed down her face. “I work for the government, and now I know who I really am, who you really are, Will Tippin.”
Jonah stood abruptly and grabbed the metal chains that suspended her swing causing her to turn and face him. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Daddy, I work for the CIA.”
Jonah stepped back, pure disbelief and horror was weaved into every line on his face. “No,” he said firmly as if trying to convince himself that it wasn’t happening.
“I’m an operations officer for the CIA.”
“No.” He let go of the chains causing the swing to jerk awkwardly and she stood as well.
“Yes,” she whispered softly.
“No,” he said desperately still trying to convince himself that the situation wasn’t real, that his daughter wasn’t involved in that life, but one look in her eyes, the tears staining her cheeks, and he knew it was the truth. “You’re CIA?” he asked softly, and her silence was his answer. Jonah, or rather Will as he immediately felt himself to be, grabbed her hand pulling her a few steps towards to car, but she stood her ground. “I have contacts,” he said frantically urging her towards the car. “We can disappear forever, new names, new identities, they will never be able to find us.”
“No,” she shook her head firmly. Her father’s eyes seemed wild with fear as he turned to face her.
“You don’t understand Aurora; these people will ruin your life.”
“I can’t,” she protested. “My mother-“
“Your mother died because of them!”
Rory opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t manage the ability to form words. Her father had just confessed to her that her mother had not died in a car accident. She’d already known the truth of course from reading Jack’s files, but hearing the confirmation from her father, the one person she never would have imagined to being the keeper of so many secrets.
Well I’ve been afraid of changin’
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
And I’m getting older too
“Rory please,” he begged her. “Please do what I’m asking.” He gripped her hands so tightly it was impossible not to keep them from shaking and his daughter could see this. “I’ve spent too long protecting you from them to throw it all away.” He pulled her hand again but she jerked it away.
“I know what you did,” she said softly. “You gave up everything for me, to protect me from whatever threats could exist from your past or my mother’s. I felt so guilty for lying to you, for keeping my own secrets. I’d never lied to you until I joined The Agency and it seems that’s all I’ve done since. I can’t fault you for keeping secrets, when I’ve done just the same-“
“It doesn’t matter,” Will took her hand once again. “None of it matters, just please come with me, I can’t let them find you.”
“It’s too late.”
Her voice trembled as she spoke and any ounce of hope that Will had left evaporated in a single instant. “What do you mean?”
“It’s too late. The CIA already knows who I am; Dixon, Vaughn, Weiss, Jack Bristow; all of them.” She took a deep breath. “I have orders to bring you back.”
Will’s jaw dropped and for the first time since his daughter’s confession, he noticed the tears of anguish that traced the features of her face. She felt as if she was betraying him.
“Dad, please come. Please don’t make this any harder for both of us,” she pleaded and wiped her eyes. She took his other hand wanting so desperately for him to just wrap her in his arms and hold her as he did when she was a child. “You’re my father, the most important person in my life. I’d do anything for you, but I can’t walk away from this. There are things that I need to do and I need you there. I know the truth now, there’s no reason to keep running, to keep hiding anymore.”
Will couldn’t speak as he listened to his daughter. He wanted too; he wanted to convince her that she was better off without them, but nothing he thought to say seemed right. He’d spent over twenty years on the run with her, always looking over his shoulder, never staying in one place too long for fear someone would find them. He was never really sure if anyone was looking for them, but he could never take the chance, not with his daughter’s life. “We can be safe-“
“I can’t leave you.” Rory adjusted her grip on his hands. “You might be in danger now; someone could try to use you to get to me. I need to know that you’re safe and I can’t leave without you.” She looked up at her father and saw the tears in his eyes. “Dad, it’s time to see your family again. Please, it’s time to come home.”
Will framed her face with his hands and wiped away her tears with his thumbs. “I thought I was prepared for everything, but I never saw this coming. Twenty years, twenty years I’ve been running with you and you never knew it. I never gave you the chance to know the truth. I was so concerned that you wouldn’t understand why I had to do it and you might do something to give us away. I didn’t trust you, and that I will always regret.”
“It’s okay,” she shrugged meaning every word. “I understand why you did it. We both kept secrets, but we don’t have to any longer.”
So, take this love, take it down
If you climb a mountain and turn around
And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide brought it down
Will sank down on the nearby bench and Rory joined him moments later. He took her hand clasping it between his. “I always knew the day would come when I would tell you the truth. I knew that you deserved to know who you really were and the legacy you came from, but I never imagined that it would happen like this.” He averted his deep blue eyes and blinked away the tears that glistened there. There was more he wanted to say but couldn’t find the words. “You said you were a field agent?”
Rory nodded quickly. “I started out as an analyst and when I transferred to LA, I became a field agent.”
“Have you ever been shot?” he held his breath, not entirely wanting to know the answer, but needing to know it.
Rory nodded and slowly lifted the hem of her dress exposing the semi healed pink scar on her thigh. “It wasn’t serious,” she said softly trying to put his mind at ease.
Will scoffed, “it could have been a lot worse. What happened?”
“I can’t… I don’t know what I can tell you,” she said softly.
“I’m your father, Aurora, you can tell me anything.”
Rory nodded realizing that her father wouldn’t let it go until he knew the events leading up to her injury. “It was a set up, about four weeks ago. We realized that there was a mole in the agency and then that it was my partner. We staged an operation to expose him, fed him false information and everything should have gone as planned, but it didn’t. There were complications, one of his accomplices showed up and I was shot, but Agent Bristow, Jack-my grandfather, he saved my life. He nearly died because of it-“
“Jack’s still involved in the CIA?” Will asked, surprised on one hand but not surprised at all on the other.
Rory nodded. “On consultation mostly; they brought him in because of me. At the time, he didn’t know who I really was, but that was the night that he found out. He never told me anything. I found out yesterday, when I saw a picture.”
Will let out a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to vanquish the horrible image his mind had created of his daughter being shot. “You’ve been so distant lately. You sounded so different on the phone and I thought that maybe you’d met some one,” an amusing smile came to his face as he glanced at her. “This certainly is a far cry from boy trouble.”
She smiled with a bit of a laugh. “Actually, I did meet someone,” she spoke softly, smiling shyly as her cheeks turning a crimson red. She fingered the necklace glancing down at it. “He’s a really good guy.”
“Are things serious?” he asked hesitantly, not entirely sure he wanted to delve into that particular subject right now, but the growing shade of red on his daughter’s face told him everything he needed to know.
“They’re… getting there,” she admitted. “He… we work together, he was my handler actually, now we’re partners so we’re kind of keeping things under the radar if you know what I mean-”
“Were you a double?” Will interrupted her after hearing mention of her handler.
“No,” she shook her head and quickly explained. “Handlers aren’t really used for that type of thing any more.”
“Thank God,” he let out a sigh of relief. “If I thought you being an agent was bad enough, being a double is far worse.”
She smiled slightly. “He’s the reason I found out actually. I saw a picture of you and Mom and everything just fit together.”
“This guy had a picture of your Mom and me?” Will asked immediately concerned.
“Yeah,” she nodded. “You’ll really like him, actually you already know him,” she added sheepishly. “His name is Zackary Weiss.”
“Eric’s son?” Will was surprised. “He couldn’t have been more than two or three the last time I saw him. Forget the CIA; they should just call it the family business.” Will leaned forwards his head in his hands and rubbed his temples. “God Rory, how did they find you? I thought we were hidden so well.”
“They didn’t,” she shrugged. “Agent Bristow, Jack-grandfather, I don’t know what to call him anymore,” she rolled her eyes. “He checked into my recruitment as soon as he found out about me. It was all coincidence, my recruitment, even my placement at the task force; no one knew who I was. Now everyone knows,” she said. “Well everyone that works on my floor anyway, but gossip does travel fast. I kind of lost it when I found out. I broke into Jack’s private files and I found out the truth.” She turned on the bench slightly and squeezed his hand. “I want to hear it from you,” she whispered, finding the words difficult to say. “I want to hear how my mother died.”
“Rory, I’ve always told you the truth about your mother,” Will replied. “She died in a car accident when you were a baby. Her name was Sydney Bristow yes, and not Kathryn Johnson Summers but that is the only thing I ever lied to you about other than her profession.”
Rory’s eyes narrowed, knowing full well the categories were quite broad and the lies delved further than he admitted. “She didn’t die in a car accident, Dad.”
“Yes Rory she did I-“
“No,” she shook her head feeling the tears prick her eyes. “She didn’t die in a car accident. Irina Derevko, her own mother, had her killed. I saw the tapes, Dad, I saw her die.”
“Oh sweetheart,” Will tucked her head against his chest and stroked her hair. He didn’t know what else to say to her. There were no words that he could think of to consol his daughter after witnessing her mother’s murder, even though she’d been dead for twenty years.
“Promise you didn’t know,” Rory asked through muffled sobs.
“I swear to you, Ladybug,” Will kissed her temple. “When I found out she was gone, she wasn’t with us, and I was told that it was a car accident.” He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. He only wished that there were something he could do to take away her pain. As a child, an orange lollypop, a band-aid, a wipe of her tears or a bear hug would always be the solution to whatever ache she had; but nothing he could do could help her now.
There were no magic words that would return the sparkle to her eye, and no amount of band-aids could heal her broken heart. But there was one thing he could do to alleviate his own concerns over her well-being. “Ror?” he asked pulling away from her a bit.
Rory sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands. “Yeah?”
“When does the plane leave?”
I took my love and I took it down
Climbed a mountain then I turned around
And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide brought me down
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life…
Well I’ve been afraid of changin’
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
And I’m getting older too.
If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide brought me down…
~ ~ ~
The Kings were loosing 8 to 1 and so it was no great loss for Zack to turn off the television when he heard a knock at his front door. He set his beer on the coffee table, stood, and shuffled down the hallway to the front door.
It had been a long day, full of analyzing, planning, and research. Dixon had assigned a team to work on Rory’s case; to determine who was after her, what they wanted and if it had anything to do with her mother. The team consisted of Dixon, Jack, Weiss, Vaughn, Marshall, Zack, Carrie, Mitchell and once she returned, Rory. Jack, recognizing the talent Will had as an analyst years before and knowing that he would demand to be included in the investigation had also requested his participation providing Will did return to LA with his daughter.
The current CIA Director had already been notified of the recent developments regarding Rory, whoever was after her and her connection to Sydney Bristow and had made it clear that if Will Tippin did not return to LA with his daughter, he was to be taken into custody and charged with evading federal authorities. Surprisingly though there wasn’t any talk of what would happen if Rory did not return. Dixon had trusted her to come back, so they hadn’t sent anyone with her, though she was monitored by a surveillance team, there was no assurance either way.
Zack checked the peephole before opening the door and was surprised to find Rory standing on his front step.
“Hey, you’re back,” he said opening the front door.
“Yeah, the flight got in a little early,” she said softly fiddling with one of the spaghetti straps of her white flowered sundress.
“What about your Dad?”
“I dropped him off at the safe house, I told him I had to go to work.” She sighed and shook her head. “Even now I’m still lying to him. Can I come in?”
“Yeah, of course sorry,” he held the door open for her and as she passed by him he got the feeling that something was wrong, other than the obvious.
“Are you alone?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you expecting anyone?” she asked setting her purse down on the hallway bench.
Zack closed the door behind her. “No why?” he asked turning around.
Zack never got the chance to hear her answer. The moment he turned around, Rory was on him. Her lips sought his aggressively and he wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her body tightly to his. He could sense a need in her, something he hadn’t felt before. His mouth slanted over hers as she attacked his mouth, their teeth clashing together. Her hands, undecided, traveled back and forth from his shoulders to his face, never able to settle in one place. Her desire to cup his face tenderly was strong, but so was the urge to pull his body as close to hers as possible. Zack cupped the back of her neck with one hand and wound the other around her back as they stumbled slightly to the wall. He leaned her back against it and brought his hands up on either side of her head to brace his weight.
Zack pulled away to allow them both time to breath and settled for kissing her neck and nipping at her shoulder. Rory moaned deeply tilting her neck to one side to allow him greater access. She ran her hands up his chest, feeling the taut muscles underneath and then pulled on the buttons of his shirt with steady fingers.
Zack was vaguely aware of her fingers undoing the buttons of his shirt, he was concentrating on finding the particular spot on her neck that he knew for sure would drive her insane. And the knowledge that she’d kicked off one of her shoes and was currently trailing her bare toes up his left leg was distracting. He caught her leg with his left hand and holding her thigh, he lifted it onto his hip.
Rory let out a noise, halfway between a moan and a sigh and Zack knew immediately that he’d found the particular spot. It was then that he noticed Rory was unbuckling his belt.
“Rory stop,” he said regretfully and pulled away from her. He looked her in the eyes, seeing the hazy mixture of desire and excitement in them. “What about what you said the other day?” he asked through heavy breaths, not wanting to go further than she wanted.
“Forget it,” she shook her head. “I know what I want, what I need, and it’s you.” Her voice was soft and husky as she spoke her fingers scraping lightly back and forth over his shoulders. She leaned up and whispered in his ear, her voice trembling with anticipation. “I want to make love to you.”
“Are you sure?”
Rory didn’t answer him with words. Her response was pulling his belt free from the pant loops and dropping it on the floor beside his feet.
Zack kissed her deeply, feeling her teeth nipping at his lower lip playfully and hiked her dress up to her thighs so he could lift her easily. Rory wrapped her strong legs around his waist and squeezed them tightly feeling the evidence of his desire pressing into her. Her hands clasped tightly around his neck and she arched her back, moaning as Zack traced the length of her collarbone with his tongue.
Holding tightly to Rory, he groaned as she squeezed her legs around him and rubbed her hips against his as his lips met hers once more. It took some time as they stopped various times; unable to keep their hands off each other but eventually Zack carried her to his bedroom and set her down on the edge of the bed. Dropping to his knees, he took her hands within his own and gently kissed her palms. Looking into her eyes, he knew this would be a night neither of them would ever forget.
A/N--> Be sure to ask for a PM if you want to read the next chapter which is Rated R/NC-17
Hope you enjoyed! and please let me know what you think.
Important Note that the next chapter I am writing will be Rated NC-17. It is an Optional chapter, so you do not have to read it to follow the story. If you want to read it, you'll have to ask for a pm for it b/c it will not be posted in THIS thread but in another thread in the rated R section. So if you want to read it ask for a PM
That said, i hope you like it and quotey reviews are always my favorite!
lol
ERIN
Previously:
“Hello.”
Rory turned to see a stranger standing off to the side. He was an elderly man dressed in a dark suit, his hands tucked in the pockets of his black overcoat. Her feet dropped to the ground and she shifted slightly to face him.
“Did you know that the white daisy is the symbol of innocence and truth?”
“I’m sorry,” she said beginning to be uncomfortable with his presence. She glanced quickly at the security guards a hundred feet away. “Do I know you?”
“Do you know me? No,” he shook his head. “Do I know you? Well that’s a much more difficult question.”
“Who are you?”
The man easily detected the fear in her voice as it trembled. “I’m no one important,” he said quietly and took a seat on the stone bench parallel to hers.
“You know me?”
He rubbed his chin roughly and smiled at her. “Not exactly. I know you’re Sydney’s daughter.” He tried to smile reassuringly at her but the look of surprise and panic displayed across her face could not be hidden. “I always wondered what you’d turn out to be like.”
“Who are you?” Rory repeated, her voice barely above a whisper, unsure of what she should do. No one was supposed to know who she really was.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Illusion of Sin
Part 12: The Truth</span>
The man smiled gently as he leaned forwards, his hands resting on his knees. “I’m no one important,” he repeated.
Rory was not convinced. Her eyes darted to the security guard ensuring that he was still nearby. The man followed her gaze and spoke again.
“I’m not a threat to you Agent Summers. My name is John Kendall; I used to work with your mother.”
“You knew my mother?” Rory asked stunned, a thousand questions coming instantly to her mind. “You were friends?”
Kendall chuckled softly, “no not friends. Friends is a bit too strong of a description. I was her superior, her handler for a time.”
Rory turned on the bench to face him fully as she recalled his name from Jack’s files. “You were her handler when she went missing for two years.”
“Correct,” he smiled warmly.
“Why was she killed?”
Kendall hesitated before speaking, not wanting to give her false hope. “I don’t know. Her death was a surprise; I suppose I always thought that she was invincible. Your mother was a good agent and I never would have thought that she was pregnant when she left LA. She tracked me down in Maryland two months later and it was a fluke that I even found out.”
“She didn’t want anyone to know about me,” Rory mumbled.
Kendall nodded sympathetically. “She had her reasons, what they were I don’t know. I know that she was running from something or someone; she wouldn’t say; only that it was not work related. She needed a place to stay, to…recuperate so to speak, it was on the third day that I called her on it and she admitted that she was pregnant. I assumed that you were Agent Vaughn’s but she denied it and I wonder if that was why she was keeping you a secret.
“After her death, I made a few discrete inquiries with trusted contacts, but no information about her child was ever found.” Kendall reached out and tilted her chin upwards slightly. “Over the years, I often wondered if you would turn out to look like your mother, I’m happy to see I was right.”
Rory smiled, her cheeks blushing slightly at his comment. “So you never knew about me either?”
“Not until about forty five minutes ago when I got a call from Director Dixon,” Kendall explained. “He informed me of who you were and that you had requested to come to Virginia before going to see your father. It was easy to figure out that you would be coming here.
“As I said before, I knew you most likely existed, but I never had any real proof. As soon as I saw you today, it was like stepping back in time.” He smiled genuinely at her. “I have it on the highest of authority that you are exactly like your mother in the field. If I were one of the enemies, I’d be extremely worried.”
Rory blushed even more and sat silently for several moments as she took everything in. Her right hand reached up to fiddle with the necklace Zack had given her. “My flight doesn’t leave for another hour, do you have time for coffee?” she asked hopefully, eager for the chance to find out more about her mother.
“Of course.”
Kendall stood grimacing as his joints cracked and Rory smiled as he made a comment about his old bones. She was surprised as he pulled out a yellow rose from the inside pocket of his suit and gently laid it on the memorial next to the daisy.
“Thank you,” she said softly, blinking back tears as she ran her fingertips over the engraved letters of her mother’s name one last time.
~ ~ ~
I took my love and I took it down
Climbed a mountain then I turned around
And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide brought me down
Jonah Summers slipped off his sunglasses as he stepped from the sidewalk to the green grass of the park’s field. His daughter was exactly where he thought she’d be. After arriving home from work he’d found a note on his kitchen table instructing him to meet her at the park. He held back a moment just watching his daughter. She wore a white sundress with red flowers that fluttered around her legs as carefree as the gentle wind. Her bare feet dangled, tracing abstract designs in the sand as she sat on the sole swing, swaying in the late summer breeze. He approached her and sat on the adjacent swing but Aurora didn’t acknowledge his presence.
“Hey, Ladybug,” Jonah prodded after a few moments. “Penny for your thoughts.”
Rory seemed startled as she looked up at him realizing for the first time that he was there. “Hi Dad,” a slight smile traced her lips.
“I was surprised to find your note. I thought you were knee deep in editorials?”
“I was, but I got a break.”
“Everything okay?” Jonah asked noticing how quiet she was.
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life
Rory took her time before answering. “I was just thinking… remember when I was six and I wanted to fly just like Mary Poppins?”
“Lord, how could I forget,” her father grinned at the memory. “We were renting that little yellow house in Kansas. You climbed out the attic window and onto the roof, umbrella, and all. I was afraid you’d break your neck.”
“I was so angry at you for making me come down.” Rory remembered as she watched a little girl of about four or five slide down the orange plastic slide under the semi-watchful eye of her teenaged babysitter. “But then you told me this wonderful story about how Mary Poppins was magic and she could only be so if children never questioned and just believed.” She swallowed hard trying desperately to clear the lump in her throat. “You always told me such wonderful stories.
“When I was older I knew that you should be out writing books instead of building apartment buildings and stupid town house complexes.” She didn’t dare glance at her father knowing she wouldn’t be able to go through with her confession if she did. “They were such great stories that lately I’ve been forced to question what is fact and what is fiction; when did the truths stop and the lies begin?”
“Ror-“
“I’m not who you think I am.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Dad, I don’t work for a publishing company.” Rory choked on her words as she spoke and tears streamed down her face. “I work for the government, and now I know who I really am, who you really are, Will Tippin.”
Jonah stood abruptly and grabbed the metal chains that suspended her swing causing her to turn and face him. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Daddy, I work for the CIA.”
Jonah stepped back, pure disbelief and horror was weaved into every line on his face. “No,” he said firmly as if trying to convince himself that it wasn’t happening.
“I’m an operations officer for the CIA.”
“No.” He let go of the chains causing the swing to jerk awkwardly and she stood as well.
“Yes,” she whispered softly.
“No,” he said desperately still trying to convince himself that the situation wasn’t real, that his daughter wasn’t involved in that life, but one look in her eyes, the tears staining her cheeks, and he knew it was the truth. “You’re CIA?” he asked softly, and her silence was his answer. Jonah, or rather Will as he immediately felt himself to be, grabbed her hand pulling her a few steps towards to car, but she stood her ground. “I have contacts,” he said frantically urging her towards the car. “We can disappear forever, new names, new identities, they will never be able to find us.”
“No,” she shook her head firmly. Her father’s eyes seemed wild with fear as he turned to face her.
“You don’t understand Aurora; these people will ruin your life.”
“I can’t,” she protested. “My mother-“
“Your mother died because of them!”
Rory opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t manage the ability to form words. Her father had just confessed to her that her mother had not died in a car accident. She’d already known the truth of course from reading Jack’s files, but hearing the confirmation from her father, the one person she never would have imagined to being the keeper of so many secrets.
Well I’ve been afraid of changin’
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
And I’m getting older too
“Rory please,” he begged her. “Please do what I’m asking.” He gripped her hands so tightly it was impossible not to keep them from shaking and his daughter could see this. “I’ve spent too long protecting you from them to throw it all away.” He pulled her hand again but she jerked it away.
“I know what you did,” she said softly. “You gave up everything for me, to protect me from whatever threats could exist from your past or my mother’s. I felt so guilty for lying to you, for keeping my own secrets. I’d never lied to you until I joined The Agency and it seems that’s all I’ve done since. I can’t fault you for keeping secrets, when I’ve done just the same-“
“It doesn’t matter,” Will took her hand once again. “None of it matters, just please come with me, I can’t let them find you.”
“It’s too late.”
Her voice trembled as she spoke and any ounce of hope that Will had left evaporated in a single instant. “What do you mean?”
“It’s too late. The CIA already knows who I am; Dixon, Vaughn, Weiss, Jack Bristow; all of them.” She took a deep breath. “I have orders to bring you back.”
Will’s jaw dropped and for the first time since his daughter’s confession, he noticed the tears of anguish that traced the features of her face. She felt as if she was betraying him.
“Dad, please come. Please don’t make this any harder for both of us,” she pleaded and wiped her eyes. She took his other hand wanting so desperately for him to just wrap her in his arms and hold her as he did when she was a child. “You’re my father, the most important person in my life. I’d do anything for you, but I can’t walk away from this. There are things that I need to do and I need you there. I know the truth now, there’s no reason to keep running, to keep hiding anymore.”
Will couldn’t speak as he listened to his daughter. He wanted too; he wanted to convince her that she was better off without them, but nothing he thought to say seemed right. He’d spent over twenty years on the run with her, always looking over his shoulder, never staying in one place too long for fear someone would find them. He was never really sure if anyone was looking for them, but he could never take the chance, not with his daughter’s life. “We can be safe-“
“I can’t leave you.” Rory adjusted her grip on his hands. “You might be in danger now; someone could try to use you to get to me. I need to know that you’re safe and I can’t leave without you.” She looked up at her father and saw the tears in his eyes. “Dad, it’s time to see your family again. Please, it’s time to come home.”
Will framed her face with his hands and wiped away her tears with his thumbs. “I thought I was prepared for everything, but I never saw this coming. Twenty years, twenty years I’ve been running with you and you never knew it. I never gave you the chance to know the truth. I was so concerned that you wouldn’t understand why I had to do it and you might do something to give us away. I didn’t trust you, and that I will always regret.”
“It’s okay,” she shrugged meaning every word. “I understand why you did it. We both kept secrets, but we don’t have to any longer.”
So, take this love, take it down
If you climb a mountain and turn around
And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide brought it down
Will sank down on the nearby bench and Rory joined him moments later. He took her hand clasping it between his. “I always knew the day would come when I would tell you the truth. I knew that you deserved to know who you really were and the legacy you came from, but I never imagined that it would happen like this.” He averted his deep blue eyes and blinked away the tears that glistened there. There was more he wanted to say but couldn’t find the words. “You said you were a field agent?”
Rory nodded quickly. “I started out as an analyst and when I transferred to LA, I became a field agent.”
“Have you ever been shot?” he held his breath, not entirely wanting to know the answer, but needing to know it.
Rory nodded and slowly lifted the hem of her dress exposing the semi healed pink scar on her thigh. “It wasn’t serious,” she said softly trying to put his mind at ease.
Will scoffed, “it could have been a lot worse. What happened?”
“I can’t… I don’t know what I can tell you,” she said softly.
“I’m your father, Aurora, you can tell me anything.”
Rory nodded realizing that her father wouldn’t let it go until he knew the events leading up to her injury. “It was a set up, about four weeks ago. We realized that there was a mole in the agency and then that it was my partner. We staged an operation to expose him, fed him false information and everything should have gone as planned, but it didn’t. There were complications, one of his accomplices showed up and I was shot, but Agent Bristow, Jack-my grandfather, he saved my life. He nearly died because of it-“
“Jack’s still involved in the CIA?” Will asked, surprised on one hand but not surprised at all on the other.
Rory nodded. “On consultation mostly; they brought him in because of me. At the time, he didn’t know who I really was, but that was the night that he found out. He never told me anything. I found out yesterday, when I saw a picture.”
Will let out a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to vanquish the horrible image his mind had created of his daughter being shot. “You’ve been so distant lately. You sounded so different on the phone and I thought that maybe you’d met some one,” an amusing smile came to his face as he glanced at her. “This certainly is a far cry from boy trouble.”
She smiled with a bit of a laugh. “Actually, I did meet someone,” she spoke softly, smiling shyly as her cheeks turning a crimson red. She fingered the necklace glancing down at it. “He’s a really good guy.”
“Are things serious?” he asked hesitantly, not entirely sure he wanted to delve into that particular subject right now, but the growing shade of red on his daughter’s face told him everything he needed to know.
“They’re… getting there,” she admitted. “He… we work together, he was my handler actually, now we’re partners so we’re kind of keeping things under the radar if you know what I mean-”
“Were you a double?” Will interrupted her after hearing mention of her handler.
“No,” she shook her head and quickly explained. “Handlers aren’t really used for that type of thing any more.”
“Thank God,” he let out a sigh of relief. “If I thought you being an agent was bad enough, being a double is far worse.”
She smiled slightly. “He’s the reason I found out actually. I saw a picture of you and Mom and everything just fit together.”
“This guy had a picture of your Mom and me?” Will asked immediately concerned.
“Yeah,” she nodded. “You’ll really like him, actually you already know him,” she added sheepishly. “His name is Zackary Weiss.”
“Eric’s son?” Will was surprised. “He couldn’t have been more than two or three the last time I saw him. Forget the CIA; they should just call it the family business.” Will leaned forwards his head in his hands and rubbed his temples. “God Rory, how did they find you? I thought we were hidden so well.”
“They didn’t,” she shrugged. “Agent Bristow, Jack-grandfather, I don’t know what to call him anymore,” she rolled her eyes. “He checked into my recruitment as soon as he found out about me. It was all coincidence, my recruitment, even my placement at the task force; no one knew who I was. Now everyone knows,” she said. “Well everyone that works on my floor anyway, but gossip does travel fast. I kind of lost it when I found out. I broke into Jack’s private files and I found out the truth.” She turned on the bench slightly and squeezed his hand. “I want to hear it from you,” she whispered, finding the words difficult to say. “I want to hear how my mother died.”
“Rory, I’ve always told you the truth about your mother,” Will replied. “She died in a car accident when you were a baby. Her name was Sydney Bristow yes, and not Kathryn Johnson Summers but that is the only thing I ever lied to you about other than her profession.”
Rory’s eyes narrowed, knowing full well the categories were quite broad and the lies delved further than he admitted. “She didn’t die in a car accident, Dad.”
“Yes Rory she did I-“
“No,” she shook her head feeling the tears prick her eyes. “She didn’t die in a car accident. Irina Derevko, her own mother, had her killed. I saw the tapes, Dad, I saw her die.”
“Oh sweetheart,” Will tucked her head against his chest and stroked her hair. He didn’t know what else to say to her. There were no words that he could think of to consol his daughter after witnessing her mother’s murder, even though she’d been dead for twenty years.
“Promise you didn’t know,” Rory asked through muffled sobs.
“I swear to you, Ladybug,” Will kissed her temple. “When I found out she was gone, she wasn’t with us, and I was told that it was a car accident.” He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. He only wished that there were something he could do to take away her pain. As a child, an orange lollypop, a band-aid, a wipe of her tears or a bear hug would always be the solution to whatever ache she had; but nothing he could do could help her now.
There were no magic words that would return the sparkle to her eye, and no amount of band-aids could heal her broken heart. But there was one thing he could do to alleviate his own concerns over her well-being. “Ror?” he asked pulling away from her a bit.
Rory sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands. “Yeah?”
“When does the plane leave?”
I took my love and I took it down
Climbed a mountain then I turned around
And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide brought me down
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life…
Well I’ve been afraid of changin’
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
And I’m getting older too.
If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide brought me down…
~ ~ ~
The Kings were loosing 8 to 1 and so it was no great loss for Zack to turn off the television when he heard a knock at his front door. He set his beer on the coffee table, stood, and shuffled down the hallway to the front door.
It had been a long day, full of analyzing, planning, and research. Dixon had assigned a team to work on Rory’s case; to determine who was after her, what they wanted and if it had anything to do with her mother. The team consisted of Dixon, Jack, Weiss, Vaughn, Marshall, Zack, Carrie, Mitchell and once she returned, Rory. Jack, recognizing the talent Will had as an analyst years before and knowing that he would demand to be included in the investigation had also requested his participation providing Will did return to LA with his daughter.
The current CIA Director had already been notified of the recent developments regarding Rory, whoever was after her and her connection to Sydney Bristow and had made it clear that if Will Tippin did not return to LA with his daughter, he was to be taken into custody and charged with evading federal authorities. Surprisingly though there wasn’t any talk of what would happen if Rory did not return. Dixon had trusted her to come back, so they hadn’t sent anyone with her, though she was monitored by a surveillance team, there was no assurance either way.
Zack checked the peephole before opening the door and was surprised to find Rory standing on his front step.
“Hey, you’re back,” he said opening the front door.
“Yeah, the flight got in a little early,” she said softly fiddling with one of the spaghetti straps of her white flowered sundress.
“What about your Dad?”
“I dropped him off at the safe house, I told him I had to go to work.” She sighed and shook her head. “Even now I’m still lying to him. Can I come in?”
“Yeah, of course sorry,” he held the door open for her and as she passed by him he got the feeling that something was wrong, other than the obvious.
“Are you alone?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you expecting anyone?” she asked setting her purse down on the hallway bench.
Zack closed the door behind her. “No why?” he asked turning around.
Zack never got the chance to hear her answer. The moment he turned around, Rory was on him. Her lips sought his aggressively and he wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her body tightly to his. He could sense a need in her, something he hadn’t felt before. His mouth slanted over hers as she attacked his mouth, their teeth clashing together. Her hands, undecided, traveled back and forth from his shoulders to his face, never able to settle in one place. Her desire to cup his face tenderly was strong, but so was the urge to pull his body as close to hers as possible. Zack cupped the back of her neck with one hand and wound the other around her back as they stumbled slightly to the wall. He leaned her back against it and brought his hands up on either side of her head to brace his weight.
Zack pulled away to allow them both time to breath and settled for kissing her neck and nipping at her shoulder. Rory moaned deeply tilting her neck to one side to allow him greater access. She ran her hands up his chest, feeling the taut muscles underneath and then pulled on the buttons of his shirt with steady fingers.
Zack was vaguely aware of her fingers undoing the buttons of his shirt, he was concentrating on finding the particular spot on her neck that he knew for sure would drive her insane. And the knowledge that she’d kicked off one of her shoes and was currently trailing her bare toes up his left leg was distracting. He caught her leg with his left hand and holding her thigh, he lifted it onto his hip.
Rory let out a noise, halfway between a moan and a sigh and Zack knew immediately that he’d found the particular spot. It was then that he noticed Rory was unbuckling his belt.
“Rory stop,” he said regretfully and pulled away from her. He looked her in the eyes, seeing the hazy mixture of desire and excitement in them. “What about what you said the other day?” he asked through heavy breaths, not wanting to go further than she wanted.
“Forget it,” she shook her head. “I know what I want, what I need, and it’s you.” Her voice was soft and husky as she spoke her fingers scraping lightly back and forth over his shoulders. She leaned up and whispered in his ear, her voice trembling with anticipation. “I want to make love to you.”
“Are you sure?”
Rory didn’t answer him with words. Her response was pulling his belt free from the pant loops and dropping it on the floor beside his feet.
Zack kissed her deeply, feeling her teeth nipping at his lower lip playfully and hiked her dress up to her thighs so he could lift her easily. Rory wrapped her strong legs around his waist and squeezed them tightly feeling the evidence of his desire pressing into her. Her hands clasped tightly around his neck and she arched her back, moaning as Zack traced the length of her collarbone with his tongue.
Holding tightly to Rory, he groaned as she squeezed her legs around him and rubbed her hips against his as his lips met hers once more. It took some time as they stopped various times; unable to keep their hands off each other but eventually Zack carried her to his bedroom and set her down on the edge of the bed. Dropping to his knees, he took her hands within his own and gently kissed her palms. Looking into her eyes, he knew this would be a night neither of them would ever forget.
A/N--> Be sure to ask for a PM if you want to read the next chapter which is Rated R/NC-17
Hope you enjoyed! and please let me know what you think.
secret_agent_angel
Cadet
that was great
:groupwave:
is syd still alve but no one knows????? just think about it
oh and vaughn is rorys dad, right????
btw can i have a pm?????
:groupwave:
is syd still alve but no one knows?????
just think about itoh and vaughn is rorys dad, right????
btw can i have a pm?????
Oh, that was such a good update. I've been reading this story for a while and been waiting for an update.
I'm not usually into future fics about their grown up children. But this is fantastic. It's got so many twists and it's just fabulous.
Thanks for writing!
Please PM Me!
-Erica
I'm not usually into future fics about their grown up children. But this is fantastic. It's got so many twists and it's just fabulous.
Thanks for writing!
Please PM Me!
-Erica
YoungStarsOwner
Cadet
Hi Erica, I'm glad you liked it! Welcome to the thread!
lol well secret agent angel......
Your answer to Sydney is found in the first chapter and nope Vaughn is not Rory's dad, Jack compared the DNA when he figured it out.
Hi Bev, Thanks I'll be sure to PM you, maybe it might even be done later this week. (perhaps)
Erin