Disclaimer: I own nothing of Alias, I'm just borrowing the characters for a little bit.
Different
Prologue
LOS ANGELES
1981
"I'm not allowed to talk to strangers," the little girl clutched her small blue, yellow and green bag in her left hand whilst in her right she held a folded collage she had done at school that day. The teacher had set them a task the day before to bring in family photographs that day to stick them onto coloured card of the child's choice and put them underneath shapes.It was a simple and fun think to do that the she had enjoyed, she couldn't wait to show it to her mom and dad andtapeit tothe fridge or maybe the wall in her room. She hadthought about giving it to her father to put on hisdesk at work so he could remember his family when he was busy, he was always busy. But then she decided if she did that then she would have to make a similar collage for her mother to take to work too. She looked passed the pretty young black haired woman with dark green eyes to see if she could see her mother's car; fourvehicles were stopped at the traffic lights at the end of the road but her mom's car wasn't one of them. She pushed her light blue sunglasses back on her head and studied the woman. The strange lady looked friendly, and she was still smiling. "My mommy will be here any second now," she checked if the woman would balk upon hearing that butshe merely smiled. She said her name was Emma Walker and reached into her pocket.
"I hope so, I haven't seen her in a while. I talked to her a couple of hours ago though and she asked me to pick you up and take you home for her. She's running a little late at work," Emma took her hand out of her pocket and held it out to the little girl.
She looked confused. "Why would she ask you to do that when she hasn't seen you for a long time?" she eyed the item that Emma was giving to her, she ignored it and folded her arms defiantly waiting for an answer.
The smile didn't leave Emma's face and her arm stayed outstretched. "Because your mom trusts me, we've been friends since we were children, since we were your age actually," a flicker of annoyance crossed her face at the kids' next comment.
"You talk funny," she took the item; it was an old black and white photograph. One woman was Emma and the other was her mother, they were stood side by side in front of a colourful building. She continued to look at it thinking that maybe she could put this photo on the collage she'd do for her mom when she got home.
Emma withdrew her arm and the smile returned as the little girl relaxed. "Well I haven't lived in this country for a long time," was her explanation for the accent. Emma had not thoughtshe would need to mask it to speak with a 6 year old.
"You lived here?" she pointed to the photo.She didn't think it looked like a place in America though she knew that they were still a million places she hadn't gone in this country yet. When she was older she was going to travel the world and take hundreds of snapshots.
Emma nodded, she was happy with the progress that she was making. For the last year or so the girl had been watched, in the years to come she would be valuable. She would be very important. An old woman of sixty-five came out of the school and, shielding her eyes against the sun, watched the two figures at the gates for a few seconds before calling over to the child. "Is everything alright, Sydney?"
She looked around and waved at the teacher, technically she wasn't a teacher but more of a helper but she was clever and Sydney thought she knew more than her actual teacher. "Yeah, I'm just talking to my mommy's friend!" she yelled back. The teacher nodded and looked relieved, she squinted to see the woman better but without her glasses everything was blurred. She waved to them and they waved back and then the teacher retreatedback inside. Nobody else was about and all the other children had been picked up. Sydneypeered downat the photo Emma had given her. "Can I keep it?" she asked hopefully.
Emma stood up, she looked happy. "Of course, honey" she answered back sweetly. She glanced at her watch and looked around, the road was clear. For now. It was getting later and she had not wanted to hang around for so long but Sydney was very cautious, the cardinal rule of 'don't talk to strangers' had been instilled in her, probably for situationssuch as this as well as the obvious reasons. "So, I'm your moms friend, can I be yours too?"
Sydney was thoughtful but a few seconds later she nodded firmly. "Any friend of my mommy's is a friend of mine," she swung the bag onto her shoulder and put the collage into her left hand to take a hold of Emma's hand with her right, they wandered hand-in-hand across the road to where Emma's blue car was parked. A few minutes later and the area was completely deserted.
"You are to prepare for extraction, Agent Derevko," the bearded handlertold Irina in a thick Russian accent, a man walking his dog strolled passed and the Russian quickly switched to a Californian accent as he carried on speaking, in hushed tones. "In two days, 1800 hours…" he detailed what would happen and turned to walk briskly away.
"Agent Bristow can still be of value to us, his work with Project Christmas –" she couldn't leave, not yet, she wasn't ready. She had realised long ago, with dread, that she had become too comfortable in her role as Laura Bristow, she met with her handler pretty infrequently to give him intel on Jack's work and the time in between, that she had no contact with the KGB, it was so easy to become settled. It had been ten years, to go back to Russian would seem alien to her now, her family, her other family, would be like strangers to her with the complete lack of contact hat she had had with them over the years. What would she do once she returned to Russia? She had no home there now.
He cut her off sharply. "There are people that think your allegiance is no longer with us, Derevko, your objections to return home…" he stressed that word, "will only prove that their concerns are well founded," he eyed her, waiting for her to argue further.
He was not disappointed. "If I can find further information that will be of use, will I be permitted to continue my mission?" she bargained. The park, many a scene for days out, for her and Jack when they were dating and later on expanded to include their daughter too, now the seemed cold, it was no longer comforting to be there.
There was silence while he pondered the request, if he coined the idea as his own then Irina may have longer, this could work to their advantage. He almost laughed out loud, she was trying to buy more time with her family and she had no idea that while she was there her family was about to be torn apart. Irina would not have time to search for further information, her mind, and Jack's would be on other matters. However he kept his face set in a perfect stoic mask and responded in a grave tone of voice. "Perhaps that can be arranged." He tried to stare her down but ended up turning away first, he strode back the way he had come; past the climbing frames, slide and swings and onto where his car was parked. When he looked back Irina had already gone.
Laura strummed her fingers on the steering wheel in time to the music that was playing through the radio, it was stifling hot and both the front windows of the car were down as far as they could go. She stopped at the traffic lights before the school and tried to see Sydney waiting for her by the gates, looking at her watch Laura saw that she was ten minutes late, she did not see her daughter outside but had no reason to worry. Sydney was sensible and had probably gone inside to await her arrival. She parked up the car and walked across the street the gates,where shesaw the teachers' helper Mrs. Jenkins, locking up and frowned. "Where's Sydney?" she questioned.
Surprised, Mrs. Jenkins spun around to see a worried Laura Bristow; she surveyed the area as though she expected her daughter to come running towards them. The old woman frowned at the question. "Your friend came and picked her up…" she looked at her watch, "No more than fifteen minutes ago. From the look that Laura now wore, Mrs. Jenkins got the most terrible feeling that the woman Sydney had been with was no friend.
Outwardly Laura tried to appear calm and collected; there must have been a reasonable explanation. Kate, her friend and work collegue,must have seen Sydney by herself while she was on her way to pick up Luke, who went to a school nearby, and given her a lift home. That explanation was not particularly reasonable though, firstly Luke stayed behind an hour later than usual on Wednesdays for basketball practice with his friend, and even if that were not the case Kate would have contacted her if she had picked Sydney up. Panic seized hold of her, a feeling she had not had before; even when she had almost been caught by Jack a couple of times, when they first started dating, going through his computer. Her heart beat faster as though she had just ran a marathon non-stop. "Who took her?" Laura demanded, she felt nauseous but she tried to remain in control. Panicking did not solve anything, control was paramount.
"Oh…I don't know her name, Sydney…Sydney, she said the woman as your friend…oh no," poor Mrs. Jenkins felt like crying and she began to doubt herself, had she worn her glasses then perhaps she would have been able to make out distinguishing marks, maybe identify the strange woman. But she had not seen her properly. "I couldn't see her," she raised her hands to her face, rubbing her forehead. "Shall I…shall I call the police?" but Laura had already gone, she raced towards her car and sped away from the school.
What was she doing? Did she really think driving around aimlessly was going to bring up anything? She didn't even know the make or colour of the car, she didn't even know if this woman had a car. Laura second guessed her actions, had she not been at the park she wouldn't have been late. It was her fault. She ran a red light and ignored the beeping car horns that followed; she barely concentrated on the traffic and instead zeroed in on the cars that drovepast andpassers by on the sidewalk. The roads were almost clear and that served to her advantage as it made it easy to see ever person that she passed. None of them were her daughter. She felt helpless. Her breathing was becoming ragged and she closed her eyes, forcing herself to remain calm again. She clenched the steering wheel to keep her hands from shaking. She would have to tell Jack.
In a daze she drove home, the seat beside her empty, no bag or books littered the back seats, Sydney wasn't chattering away about her most recent day at school. She wasn't holding up her latest masterpiece and insisting Laura stop concentrating on the road for a moment to give her opinion. Laura felt empty. She arrived home, alone, and walked to the phone. The police, she needed to call the police. She could barely believe the words that were coming out of her mouth as she spoke to the dispatcher. She realised then that she was probably in shock. Sydney was missing.
This was the first in a long time for Jack; he was coming home early. He had gotten out of the longest meeting he had ever had to endure to hear that Laura had called him at work, something she very rarely did, and asked him to come home as soon as possible. Sam, his friend,had taken the message and had told him that she had sounded strange on the phone, distant. Jack was only slightly concerned, he had no reason to think anything serious had happened, if it had then Laura would probably have told Sam and he in turn would have gotten Jack out of the meeting from hell. And then he saw the police car parked outside his house and someof their neighbours hovering around outside. As he passed them by theywore looks of sympathy and gave him their condolences. With a jolt of fear Jack ignored them and raced up the path. The front door was open and from the hallway he saw one of the police officers standing in the living room, a woman he just about remembered was Mrs. Jenkins was sat down with her head in her hands. Laura was leant against the wall with her arms folded; she was staring at the floor, completely out sorts. Hearing him enter she looked up and watched him, not speaking; he crossed the room and noticed that Sydney was not present. The question concerning his daughter was the first that left his mouth, "Where is she?" His hand left his side to cuphis wife'scheek, "Laura?"
His voice was so soft, and she felt a pang of guilt, he was going to hate her. "She's missing," there was nothing right with that short sentence and those two words turned Jack's world upside down.
Sleep was like something foreign to Jack and Laura Bristow that night. Their neighbourhood was small and word quickly spread about what had happened, people they had onlynoticed on the street and some they had never seen at all came knocking on their door just to say sorry and offer their help and services should they need it. The police could not do much and they let the Bristow's know that they would do everything they could; they didn't hold much hope though. Jack had gone out in the car a couple of hours later to drive around, as Laura had done before him, to see if he could, by some miracle, spot Sydney. Miracles were in short supply that cool night. Laura stayed at home, wishing but not expecting Sydney to run through the door. With a humourless laugh it crossed her mind that now would be the perfect time to root around for more information for her bosses, but that wasn't important anymore. She knew there wasn't much more intel she could give to them anyway, she had said that there was to buy her more time. But, her family had been her priority for a long time now; it just wasn't enough to keep Sydney safe.