Alias- Forever And Always

31) Reviving The Reunion

AN: Music for this chapter (on repeat): When Somebody Loved Me by Sarah McLachlan, Cosmic Love by Florence & The Machine, What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong, Warning Sign by Coldplay, Dirty Little Secret (remix) by The Thievery Corporation feat. Sarah McLachlan, Wicked Game by Chris Isaacs, Magalenha by Sergio Mendes, Iguazu by Gustavo Santaolalla, Walkaway by Thomas Newman from Meet Joe Black Soundtrack, Goodbyes by Celine Dion, Fix You by Coldplay, Far Away by Nickelback, Open Arms by Mariah Carey.

THIRTY-ONE

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*When Somebody Loved Me*

Sydney had left her father and Vaughn at the CIA and on autopilot headed straight towards Union Station. Her tears were blinding after remembering the last days with her mother, remembering all that she had forgotten, the most important thing... her mother had always and promised would always, love her. An important memory, an important message... forgotten because of Project Christmas.

She made her way inside and found herself sitting in the same seat she had occupied just after her mother had turned herself into the CIA and she saw her for the first time.

"Trust me."

"Why should I do that?"

"Because I'm your mother."

She held back a small sob with the flashing image as another passenger waiting for their train took the seat two away from hers.

It was a fact she had tried so desperately to ignore, that she was her mother. Sydney had wanted so badly to keep the images of her separate, to be able to still love the mother she'd known, the loving mother of Laura and hate Irina as she was the one she didn't understand.

Irina had left her, abandoned her and never loved her or so Sydney had thought, tried to convince herself was the truth but now she knew. She'd witnessed the painful truth today, that her mother was Irina, had always been Irina and that she didn't want to leave them, didn't abandon her but was forced to leave after they murdered her own mother for trying to stay. Her mother... Irina... hadn't a choice. She had to go, or they would all have been killed.

Sydney inhaled a shaking breath pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging them, needing to wrap her arms around herself as much as possible feeling so alone.

This time as the images from her childhood with her mother collided with those of the woman she'd come to know slightly over this past year, she was no longer trying to spot the differences but the similarities.

The way she'd smile at her, push her hair behind her ear... the way she tilted her chin up on their way to Kashmir after Sydney had been hurt... Kashmir. Sydney did sob out loud, covering her mouth with her hand fisted around her shirt-sleeve and looking towards the window as the images from the film of her mother's torture ran rampant through her mind.