A/N: This is a fanfic I have been working on for a couple of months now, and so, to celebrate season 4 of Alias finally starting in Australia tonight, I have decided to post it. Hope you like it.

Summary:Set two years after Phase One. Sydney is forced into hiding after the code Dixon sends her does not match that from Server 47. Two years later a familiar face shows up. Note: Sloane never planned the destruction of the Alliance and Emily is really dead. It was he who captured Jack, not Geiger.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Alias, however I do own the right to obsess completely over it! Also the title comes from the lyrics of the song Carry On by MotorAce, so I guess I
should say that I don't own that either.

Tollston was a small town, a friendly town. It was a place where couples went to spend a weekend away, to experience life that was void of all the hustle and bustle.

It was also a place where, for the locals, every detail about them was public knowledge. Who was fighting with whom, which family had decided to buy a new dog and who was planning on going to Disneyland for their holidays. Nothing about anyone was private. Well, that is, except for Audrey Seyton.

Audrey had moved to Tollston two years ago. A stranger, who one day simply appeared in the town, rented a two-bedroom house and started up a small bookstore. When she first arrived Audrey was reluctant to discuss herself. All she said was that she had moved there after getting out of a bad relationship. She needed to start over and Tollston seemed to be the perfect place to do it. The locals accepted this. After all, she was new and most probably shy. Once she got to know them Audrey would open up sooner or later.

They were wrong. Sure, they knew that her favourite ice cream flavour was coffee and that her favourite book was her first edition of Alice in Wonderland. However, where she had gotten such an item remained a complete mystery.

The information they knew about Audrey was completely trivial and gave no insight into who she really was as a person. Still, even though she was such an enigma, Audrey was a loved and respected member of the community.

And while Audrey loved and respected the community back, she couldn't wait for the day when she could leave. The fear that it would never come plagued her mind every single day and haunted all of her dreams at night.

Of course Audrey lived alone, except for the company of a cat she had named Boyscout. Her married neighbours, Alec and Georgie, had questioned her numerous times about her choice for Boyscout's name. But, like so much else in her life, Audrey refused to explain.

Since moving to Tollston Audrey had developed a routine. At first it had been comforting to her, getting up and doing the same thing every day. Wake up, go for a run, shower, have breakfast and then go to work. But soon she began to find it monotonous and started to crave excitement and unpredictability. This need for action startled Audrey a little; she thought that she'd had enough of that to last a lifetime.

On this particular day, a Wednesday, Audrey was out on her front step, stretching before her run. Next door Georgie had come outside to collect the paper. Georgie was the only one in Tollston that Audrey had allowed herself to get semi-close to.

"I don't know how you do it, Audes." Georgie called out. "Every bloody morning."

"You don't know what you're missing out on." Audrey replied, jogging over.

"So," Georgie started, a sly grin on her face. "I was speaking to Nathan yesterday."

"Oh, don't start." Audrey groaned. Her non-existent love life was one of Georgie's favourite topics.

"Come on Audrey. He's been keen on your for ages! And you've only been on about three dates since moving here. What is it with you? What is it that you are looking for exactly?"

'Something I've already found,' Audrey thought. 'Something I've never had and never will.' But to Georgie, she simply shrugged. "I'm not looking for anything- I have Boyscout for company."

"You and that cat." Georgie laughed. "Where did you ever get a name like that for him?"

Audrey smiled evasively. "Oh, it was just floating around in here." She tapped the side of her forehead.

"You're weird." Georgie smiled.

"Well somebody around here has to keep you guys entertained."

"True."

"I gotta run." With a wave Audrey jogged off.

For breakfast that morning Audrey stopped at a café that was down the street from her little shop. The café was always busy at this time of the morning, and that was how Audrey liked it. The more people there were, the less attention that was focused on her. She sat at the far end of the counter, nursing a large mug of coffee. May, the middle-aged woman who owned the café came up to Audrey.

"How are you doing, Audie?" Audrey cringed. She'd hated that nickname from day one. Why couldn't she have been given a name that couldn't be shortened into something horrendous? A name like Sarah, or Julie, or Anne…well, that one was out of the question.

"I'm doing fine."

"A little birdie told me that you have a birthday coming up." For a split second Audrey was confused. It wasn't April. But then she remembered.

"Yeah, it is," she sighed, taking a mouthful of coffee.

"So will you be spending the day with family?" May prodded.

'What family? An incarcerated mother and a father who was most likely dead?' Audrey thought, looking into May's eager eyes.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because." Audrey snapped, probably a little too sharply. She'd thought that after two years these people would have stopped this prying business. Audrey wasn't going to say a thing. The more she said, the more she would have to lie and Audrey had lied to enough people in her life.

"I'm sorry May."

"I was just trying to make conversation," the older woman replied, sounding slightly huffy.

"I know."

Audrey left the café soon after and strolled down the street to her little bookstore. It wasn't exactly the job of her dreams. She had been forced to give up her dream of teaching English when she'd left college before graduating.

Opening the door, she tried to console herself. She loved books and the written word. Now instead of teaching them, she was selling them. She tried to look at it like she was spreading her love for them in a different way.

On that day business was slow. Audrey busied herself with the small odd jobs that needed doing. Vacuuming the carpet, wiping down the windows, neatening displays etc. At one point she sat down at the front counter and flipped idly through the daily paper. She wasn't really reading it, just thumbing through the pages for something to do.

When she began to feel antsy, she closed the paper, pulled off the hair tie she wore around a wrist and gathered her blonde hair into a ponytail. She then grabbed a duster and set to work on her shelves.

About five minutes later she heard a bell, indicating that a customer had just entered. She continued to dust, giving them time to browse, before approaching. She had discovered early on that customers appreciated this tactic.

Audrey dusted for a couple more minutes before she headed to the front of the store. Whoever had entered before was still standing by the door. With the afternoon sun glaring through the windows Audrey could see no descriptive features, only the silhouette of a man.

"Good afternoon," she smiled. "Can I help you?" The man shifted slightly and Audrey caught a glance of his face. She stopped short. It was a face that had been stamped on her mind for the past two years.

And even though she knew what the answer would be, she still asked the question.

"What are you doing here?"