^ It is complete over at sd-1, but Zoe, has convinced me to keep posting it here so here is the next installment! I will try very hard to post it every day or two.
I like the chap alot. I've never been a huge Jack/Irina shipper, but I enjoyed writing this and kind of getting into their relationship a bit.
As you know, I love feedback
Chapter 8
Vaughn completed the microchip installation in Sark’s PDA. He and Sydney were about to do a final check when Jack’s urgent voice came over the comm.
“Boy Scout, Mountaineer, Target had just entered the building. You need to get out now.”
Sydney and Vaughn sprinted out of the door and slid into their shoes. Unfortunately there was no time to secure the lock. Vaughn quickly shimmied up the rope with Sydney close behind. They may be in a hurry, but there was still time for Sydney to admire a shimming Vaughn as she climbed after him.
Once on the roof Vaughn opened his comm.
“Boy Scout to base. We are on the roof. Could you identify the second target?”
“Negative Boy Scout. Target is identified as female, but there an umbrella was obscuring her from sight.
Vaughn sighed
“We’re heading to base”
“Affirmative boy scout.
Sydney and Vaughn made there way across the roof with the quiet grace of two dancers in complete awareness of each others movements at all times. At the edge of the roof they paused to confirm that the alley was empty.
As they were about to descend, Jack’s voice came in over the com
“We have a problem Boy Scout.”
“It seems two of the microchips are on the same frequency. As a result we are unable to receive transmissions on all frequencies. One of the doubles MUST be reset to another frequency.”
Vaughn groaned
“Do we know which ones?”
“Affirmative, code 621722 has been doubled”
Vaughn sighed and rubbed his forehead.
“Understood. Going radio silent until done and clear”
“Be Safe Boy Scout, Mountaineer”
“Always Base”
Vaughn looked at Sydney and grimaced.
“Rats”
Sydney looked at him quizzically.
“Excuse me, rats?”
“Yea, I read a quote from Charles Shultz when he said he found ‘rats’ and ‘good grief’ covered just about everything.”
Vaughn stretched his arms over his head and Sydney heard his shoulders pop. It was raining steadily now and they were both drenched to the bone.
“I’ll go. It’s the chip I was working on in the washing machine when you screamed. I forgot which frequency I set it too and I set the one in the bedroom clock on the same frequency”
“Good Grief”
“See it does cover everything”
Sydney grinned and began to check her equipment.
“No, I’ll go. It’s my fault I distracted you with my LOUD VOCALIZATION”
“Oh yea right, I forgot you don’t scream. I’ll go.”
“Nope, it’s my turn. I am fully capable of taking care of myself as you well know. Stop being condescending and trying to protect me. You know it drives me insane”
Sydney smiled to take the sting from her words.
“Besides, I’m stealthier than you”
“Stealthier? I’m not sure that’s a word”
“Doesn’t mean I’m not better at it than you.
Sydney was right. There were actually only 2 people who could beat Vaughn in stealth. Sydney and surprisingly enough Weiss. Eric was like a big predatory cat. Weiss always attributed it to all the sneaking out of girls’ dorms in college, but it was more than that. Weiss seemed to have this innate grace or sneakiness’. Graceful sneakiness that was it.
“Ok, you’re right”
Sydney looked startled and gave an exaggerated gasp and covered her mouth, wide eyed.
“Shut up Bozo, just be careful”
HE JUST CALLED HER BOZO!
“Always Pizza Boy, always”
They stood for a moment foreheads and souls touching.
“I had better get going. I’ll be radio silent”
Vaughn looked concerned but swallowed the advice he was about to give.
Who said you couldn’t teach an old dog new tricks!
Vaughn watched her repel over the side of the building. She firmly planted her feet and pushed off every few feet.
Vaughn loved watching her move. Forget fragile women. He would take one with power and grace. THIS particular one with power and grace. Sydney could manage to make rappelling look sexy.
Sydney land without a sound (she was GOOD) on the balcony.
Vaughn positioned himself near the edge of the roof out of site, but close enough to come to Sydney’s aid if he needed to.
This was actually the first time, other than changing clothes, that he and Sydney had been separated since their reconnection on the plane.
He decided to use this time to figure out what he was going to say to Lauren. She didn’t deserve to be hurt, but neither did she deserve to live a lie. Neither did he. He was sure once she thought about it she would agree.
But what to say?
“Lauren, this isn’t working…”
Somewhere in Russia
Irina Direvco paused to blow on her hot coffee as she gazed out her kitchen window into the forest beyond.
She loved this house. It was more of a cottage really, that had been updated over the years. Her great grandfather had built it as a hunting lodge and the family had managed not only to keep it, but turn it into a cozy retreat even with the tumult of wars and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Some of her favorite childhood memories were in this cottage. It was no wonder she had chosen the cottage for her Fugitive Home once again. It was the only place she had ever felt safe.
Irina turned form the window sipping her coffee. The sunlight reflected off a small picture frame on the mantel. She walked over to the picture and caressed the frame lovingly as if she was caressing the actual faces of the persons in the picture.
It was a Bristow Family Photo of the 3 of them in India. Jack was wearing that horrible linen suit. Sydney looked bored, twirling her blond curls around her finger while snapping gum. Irina herself was vapidly grinning while fingering her explosive necklace. A street vendor had snapped it while they were at customs in India. They had no choice but to buy it.
Irina smiled at the frame. They looked ridicules. For the Bristow’s, it was the equivalent of dressing up in one of those photo places at the amusement part. They looked absolutely ridicules. It was one of her most treasured possessions.
She had been dumbfounded when Jack had slipped it to her as she was reentering the cell. He had spent the entire mission ignoring her, distrusting her, keeping her cooped up in baskets. Then he had gone and given her something so precious.
Irina shook her head. Her relationship with Jack was more than she had ever hoped for and far less than her dreams. Sydney’s disappearance had brought them together. All else could be kept in dark shadows that surrounded them. They trusted each other to find their daughter.
How she missed that man.
He had been her pillow, her sparring partner, her rock, her equal in intellect and passion. The KGB had made a big mistake assigning her to Jack Bristow. The Russian government had essentially introduced her heart to its mate.
She had been trained in loyalty to country above all else. That America was evil and was out to destroy their entire way of life if they were not stopped. Woven through out was the myth of Rambaldi, which she had heard all of her life and was now conditioned that Rambaldi would realize communism throughout the world. She had been an idealist.
She had been told her target would be stupid, lazy, loud, overbearing, and most likely overweight.
Instead he had been…Jack Bristow.
As her feelings for Jack grew, her job became more and more difficult. Her KGB handler began sending her away on “literary conferences” which were really mini reconditioning sessions. She would go home with renewed distain for America and Jack, until she looked into his eyes. She had even managed to convince her handler that Sydney’s birth would give her even more trust with her target. Target. She was never to refer to him by name, he was “Target”.
Irina was not sure how long she would have lasted had she not overheard Arvin Sloane mention the name “Rambaldi”
Irina sighed.
Many things would have been different , for good and bad, if she had never overheard that conversation.
But, she had.
Irina had grown up with the myth of Rambaldi and later had been conditioned to believe Rambaldi held the key to the deliverance of her homeland. After becoming involved with Slone she began to believe in the reality of Rambaldi. It was as if one suddenly discovered that Apollo was real and that you and your daughter were a part of his plan. After learning of the prophesy, she chose a path that she could not abandon. Did she have a choice?
Sydney and Jack, her family, had almost been her undoing. Her maternal connection to Sydney was more than she had ever expected. Irina and Jack had always been able to sense each other’s moods, an echo she saw in Sydney and Agent Vaughn,
Flashback
Irina had returned home one night despondent, sick to the core of her soul. For months her handler had been pressuring her to complete an assignment. She had stalled and stalled. He had finally pulled out the duty, love of country, hate of America card, then had informed her if she did not comply she would be extracted and the safety of her family would be in jeopardy.
She had walked into their home, for that was what she now thought of it, and sank into the sofa, head in hands when Jack had come in.
He had asked her what was wrong. She mumbled something about work and harsh words of the department director.
Jack asked if she wanted some wine.
She nodded.
Jack went out of the room. He came back a while later. Much later than it really took to pour a glass of wine, but she was too tired to really contemplate why.
Jack handed her a glass of wine and cleared his throat loudly. He was standing in the doorway with a roll of paper towel held out in front of him like a roll of parchment.
“Our poetry recitation this evening will be by the renowned poet Jack Bristow. The poem is entitled ‘My Wife”
“Ahem” He cleared his voice once again.
“Laura, Laura “Laura, Laura
I couldn’t love you any mora
Your smile can make me melt
You make me feel as I never before have felt.
Your chili turns me to butter.
It’s you I love and no utter.
Come over here
Let me breathe softly in your ear
Take you to bed
Make love to you
Let you lose all of your fears”
Jack took a large florid bow.
Irina could not handle the love she felt form this man. She put her head in her hands once again and sobbed silently.
Jack knelt down in front of her and pulled her hands away form her face. He asked no questions (how unlike the Jack of today, another thing she had taken from him). He kissed her gently, breathed softly in her ear, and carried her up to bed.
Jack had no way of knowing, other than her confession, that there was no way he could erase her fears. Her fear of what she had just done or what would happen to look in Jack’s eyes when he found out.
The mission she had just completed had been the assassination of William Vaughn.
End of Flashback
Irina sighed and touched the frame again.
So many choices.
So much pain.
The pain she had seen in William Vaughn’s son’s eyes. How ironic that it wild be her daughter that would dissolve that pain, albeit replace it with another.
Irina knew the same pain had been in her own eyes when she had “died”. Yes, she had chosen to leave. Her Handler had seen the warning signs and had pulled Irina before she had completely become Laura Bristow. Irina knew if that had happened her family would be dead, all she had been taught and for some reason had still believed in would be damaged. Under all of that was Rambaldi and Irina’s and her daughter’s connection. As Irina Drievco she could search as Laura Bristow could never do.
And so she plunged into icy waters on a rainy night.
When she arrived at the contact point there was not one yet there. Irina sat back against a tree and wept.
She wept for love she would never feel
For the arms of a dimpled little girl around her neck
Fro strip poker after Sydney was in bed
For the look in Jack’s eyes when she wore that red dress.
For the look in her eyes when Jack wore a black turtleneck.
For Saturday morning pancakes and picnics in the park
For bad poetry, cornbread, and duck pillows.
So she grieved until she heard her contact’s signal.
As she stood up, she felt the final pain as Laura Bristow died and Irina Derives strode purposefully toward the future.
Irina allowed a single tear to course down her face. She had been hugging the picture tightly to her chest. She loosened her grip, kissed Jack and Sydney one more time and gently placed the picture back on the mantle.
Irina looked around the room again. Jack had come to her here, despite the repercussions. They had been brought hack together for a common parental goal. Saving one’s child transcended all other allegiances.
Flashback
Jack had stood awkwardly with his hands in his pockets. He had no idea where he was. Irina’s henchmen, well colleagues, they were on the same side for the moment, had brought him in blindfolded.
He and Irina had exchanged pleasantries and it seemed they would never be able to attain some common ground unless one of them made the first move. Irina turned.
“It’s been a long day, you should have something to eat”
Jack nodded wearily and followed Irina into the kitchen . He put his hand on a chair by the table. Before he could sit down he froze. Irina had had walled to the stove and lifted the lid to stir the contents. Jack was paralyzed by the smell emanating form the pot.
Laura’s chili.
The Bristow family remedy for a bad day, when a celebration was needed, or when some weightily matter needed to be dealt with.
Irina glanced back and was stunned. The man she saw was not the AGENT Bristow she had first seen from her cell in CIA custody. No, this was Jack Bristow, the man she thought had ceased to exist after learning their marriage was an assignment. That Jack had not been extinguished as everyone thought. He was hidden deep down inside where no one could see or cause pain. Irina could see the various emotions fighting for prominence: incredulity, love, longing, passion, fear, and pain all revolving like a Merry-Go-Round.
Jack felt as if his legs were completely incapable of supporting his weight. He slowly sank into the chair he had been holding.
Irina moved behind the chair, wrapped her arms around Jack. She pressed herself against Jack’s back and rested her chin on top of Jack’s head. She said softly
“Our daughter is missing Jack. We must have strength to find Sydney. We needed chili. I needed to make chili.”
Jack nodded and put his hands on top of Laura’s holding them tight to his chest. He and Irina stayed motionless for a few moments.
Jack took a deep inward breath and let it out slowly. Irina felt the shift as her husband was put back in a box and pushed deep down into Agent Bristow.
“Well, I certainly hope there is cornbread”
End of flashback
Irina looked at the picture one last time. She wished just once she and Jack could sit down together with nothing but honestly between them.
But that was not to be. Iran dusted off her hands as if she were trying to dust off all of her regrets. She squared her shoulders and strode purposefully across the kitchen to put her cup in the sink.
There was no time for regrets or what might have beens. She still had secrets to protect. Secrets she was not sure Jack could forgive.
Speaking of Jack, she had not herd for him in weeks. Irina sat down at her computer and logged on. Shed smiled slightly, almost in spite of herself, when she saw a waiting message from Jack.
She opened the message, read its’ contents and looked down at what she was wearing.
BUSTED
Sydney poised herself on the balcony, listening intently for any sound form the apartment within. She heard some muffled sounds, but hey were too far away to be coming form the main area. She slowly looked around the corner and in through the balcony door. She now had a clear view of the living room, dining room, and kitchen areas. Sydney could see no one. As she scanned to the left, she saw the bedroom door was open. There was a light visible and a shadow passing across briefly obscuring the light.
Sydney crinkled her nose and contemplated the best course of action. No matter which way she went, at some point she would be in view of that open bedroom door.
She heard voices. Sark’s voice was clearly audible, but the woman’s voice was too soft to pick out what she was saying so Sydney only heard one side of the conversation.
Woman’s voice murmuring
Sark replied “My aren’t we anxious love. It’s to be expected. You’ve been stuck with your husband for weeks. How sad for both of you”.
Murmured reply
Sark “You will have to be more inventive than that if you are planning on keeping me awake”.
Yuck!
Sark had such a way with words.
Sydney scanned the room again. If she went along the top of the couch, she could avoid the chance of being seen. She slid into the room and along the wall. Sydney nimbly leapt onto the couch and made her way across the top like a cat along the top of a fence. She made her way to the washer and dryer and accessed the microchip as she heard more sounds than she ever wanted to hear coming from the bedroom.
Sydney heard a sharp intake of breath and Sark’s voice rough, but still sarcastic.
“Well that’s a bit more interesting, I’m sure if you ever did that to your husband you would scare him into a coma”.
There was a low chuckle from his partner and a voice still to low to hear, not that Sydney wanted to. Right now she just wanted to cover her ears like a four year old and yell “la la la la I can’t hear you”. That would make reprogramming the microchip difficult and probably alert Sark to her presence. She instead quickly completed installing the new code.
The noises from the bedroom were becoming more frantic. Sydney timed her steps across with the rhythmic squeaking of the bed springs and quietly slid the door shut behind her.
Ok. Sydney had undergone tortures of every kind, but she would gladly go though most of them again to never listen to “mating” Sark again. Well, maybe that wasn’t quite true. Sydney really did not want to loose any more teeth. She tried to think of something other than torture that had been that…icky. The only thing she could think of was the time she WALKED IN ON her parents.
Laura had been wearing spiked heels, black sheer hoes and garters. Nothing else. Jack had been wearing solely his shoulder holster (it struck her as odd that she had never wondered why her dad had been wearing a gun). On second thought that was worse. At least with Sark she hadn’t had a visual.
Sydney shimmied up the rope to her anxiously awaiting partner. She nodded and the two quietly and rapidly pulled up the line, crossed the roof and rappelled down the other side. They each secured their lines back on their respective utility belts.
Vaughn looked over at Sydney.
“Did something happen in the apartment. You have a strange look on your face”
Sydney shivered and made a face.
“I had to do the entire mission while listening to Sark DOING IT with his partner. I could hear them smooching and YUCK!
Sydney sounded like a kid who just heard that boys and girls like to kiss.
“I think it might have turned me off of kissing for good!”
Vaughn turned to her with a look of horror. His looked changed and he met her eyes.
This was not he look she was used to. This was not the “I’msuchaloserIdidn’twaitandmarriedwhat’shernameIwantyoubutIcan’thaveyoulook”
It wasn’t even the pre fall of SD6 Ican’tthinkindebriefbecauseIwanttokissyoulook.
Nope
This was the “you have an oven you can reheat point guy look”.
He was standing right in front of her. It had finally stopped raining and the heat from Vaughn’s body was causing the moisture of his wet clothes to evaporate and condense in the cool air.
He was literally smoking.
Vaughn pulled her to him, bent his head and kissed her breathless.
They stood lips and hands intertwined with the steam from their drying clothes puffing up between them. It was like the mists of Brigadoon. Sydney almost wished it was so she and Vaughn would disappear together for a thousand years. But it wasn’t Brigadoon. It was Vancouver.
Sydney pulled away just enough to look Vaughn in the eye while still not breaking the contact of the rest of their bodies.
“What happened to will you wait for me a little while longer”?
“I guess the wait wasn’t as long as I thought”
“Oh really, did you happen to have a conversation with SOMEONE while you were waiting on that roof?
“In my head”
Sydney pushed him away playfully, and then pulled him back to her as if the loss of contact was painful.
“That doesn’t count”
Vaughn sighed regretfully.
“I know”
Sydney tilted her head sideways and crinkled her eyes as if in deep though which she was.
“You know it’s not just you moving on or your marriage. It’s me too. After Hong Kong my mind was like a broken vase with sharp strands of glass.”
“Everything was so different I couldn’t even handle it at first. It was like I was in shock, which I guess I was. It seemed like I would adjust to one thing then another change would surface and I would have to start all over. It got to the point that I would fall apart at the smallest things. They changed the ingredients of my favorite Chinese take out dish while I was gone and I though the world was ending.”
“For the longest time I revolved all of my problems around the fact that you had moved on and if you had waited and were free, we would have just picked up where we had left off.”
“After finding out the name of the man I killed for the Covenant, I realized is was so much more complex. I have all of these emotions about the things I did as Julia Thorne. On top of that I have all of this guilt, anger, and frustration about erasing my memories. It’s this cacophony of dissonant feelings. I HAVE to make some sense out of it before I can have a healthy relationship. I want you to be there, but Vaughn, I can’t do it WITH YOU”.
Vaughn nodded and looked down at his shoes.
With that now all too familiar gesture Sydney inwardly sighed. Morose Vaughn, LAUREN’S Vaughn was back.
“Well in that case” Vaughn said dejectedly.
Vaughn suddenly looked up with a gleam in his eye. He stepped back quickly and let go of Sydney’s hands.
“Spy Race”
Vaughn took off down the alley yelling back over his shoulder
“Last one to base has to kiss Sark”
Sydney was shocked for a moment than was after him. They made their way through the obstacle course of back alleys, exchanging the lead a number of times.
As they rounded the corner and saw their base apartment, Vaughn was a few strides ahead. Sydney suddenly let out a loud gasp and fell to the ground clutching her ankle. Vaughn turned around, jogging backwards. When he saw Sydney on the ground, clutching her ankle and rocking with pain, Vaughn ran towards her with his forehead wrinkled with concern.
“Syd, are you ok”?
He bent down and put a hand on her shoulder.
Sydney looked up with tears in her eyes.
“I’m not sure”
When Vaughn bent down even closer the tears in Sydney’s eyes turned to an evil gleam. She grabbed Vaughn’s arms and pulled him sprawling to the ground while simultaneously using the leverage to propel herself to her feet. She was up and running in a split second. Now it was her turn to look over her shoulder and taunt Vaughn.
She made kissy noises at him
“Better practice for Sark”!
Vaughn was up and after her in a heartbeat. He closed the gap and they both stretched and touched the door at the same time.
“Hey, you cheated!”
“No way! You said Spy Race. That means spy rules, which most definitely includes deception!”
Vaughn laughed.
“Well, at least no one has to kiss Sark”
Sydney and Vaughn stood facing each other, their breathing beginning to return to normal. Vaughn smiled and tucked a stray strand of hair behind Sydney’s ear.
“You know this might just work. I’ll work on my stuff.”
Sydney lightly ran her finger down the cleft in Vaughn’s chin.
“And I’ll work on my stuff”
Vaughn placed a gentle kiss on the tip of her nose.
“When we both have our respective stuff in order...”
Vaughn paused, grabbed Sydney’s hands, placed them over his heart and covered them with his own.
“We’ll meet each other in Santa Barbara.”
Maybe he hadn’t quite canceled his belief in fairytales after all.
Jack looked up from the monitors as Sydney and Vaughn came through the door. He frowned at the sight of the two of them flushed and smiling. Jack thought he had made himself perfectly clear. He would need to have another talk with AGENT Vaughn.
“I trust you were successful in reformatting the chip”
Sydney rushed quickly over to view the monitors, which were filled with static”
“What happened?”
“A minor glitch. Our highly competent good friend Marshall assures me it will be fixed soon”
Both Sydney and Vaughn looked quizzically at Jack. Vaughn went to the kitchen and grabbed 2 juices and a bag of chips, while Sydney sat next to Jack.
“Good, believe me you did not want a visual on what I was hearing.”
Vaughn headed over to the couch and put his feet his feet up. He handed a juice to Sydney and opened the chips.
Jack raised his ever ready eyebrow.
“Agent Vaughn, this is not a hockey game.”
Vaughn put his feet down, but handed the open bag to Jack who took a handful of chips. They became glued to the screen as the image became clear on the screen. The bedroom monitors showed Sark lounging against the headboard. His partner was not visible. The audio was clear and they heard Sark say
“So, have you finally erased the memory of your husband?”
The bathroom door opened and its occupant stepped into the clear view of the monitors.
