Alias- Jack & Laura

16) The Lost Baby

Jack rang the Sloanes' doorbell on Saturday morning, trying to ignore Sydney dancing impatiently beside him. "Aunt Emily!" she squealed when Emily finally opened the door.

Emily smiled. "Come on in, Sydney, I've got cookies for you in the kitchen."

"You're spoiling her," Jack said.

"That's my prerogative as her godmother," Emily replied with a grin. Then her expression got more serious. "I told him he shouldn't be bothering you with work, but Arvin needs to talk to you. He's in his study."

"Thank you, Emily." She nodded and took Sydney into the kitchen. Jack sighed and knocked on the door of Arvin's study.

"Come in, Jack," Arvin called. Jack entered to see Arvin standing by his desk, looking serious. "I made the mistake yesterday of mentioning to Dawson that I would see you this weekend, so of course he had a message for you." He handed Jack a briefcase. "He wants you to try Twilight on Laura when she gets home. He said not to come in on Monday; he wants you to do it while Sydney's at school."

"Twilight? Is he crazy?" Jack was shocked. "I thought the procedure was still considered too experimental to do outside of a controlled environment. Besides, what makes him think she'll let me?"

"The data from the last round of tests came in yesterday, and there are no signs of any problems. And she'll cooperate if she's sincere." Arvin shrugged. "I'm not sure I agree with it either, but if it works at least we'll know for sure that she's on our side. There's a list of questions in there that Dawson wants you to ask her. He said to tell you that of course you're welcome to ask her anything else you want to know while she's under. Oh, and you'll need to give her a pregnancy test; there's one in the briefcase. No go if it's positive."

Jack sighed. "You heard her talking to her handler, Arvin. All these years we've supposedly been trying to have a second child, she's been taking pills. She's not pregnant." Jack was silent for a moment as another realization dawned. "Oh, God," he whispered.

"Jack?"

"The miscarriage." Arvin nodded, remembering the miscarriage that Laura had suffered four years ago, three months into her pregnancy. "Do you think…could she have done it?"

"I think that's something you should ask her," Arvin said quietly. "But Jack, if she did, I doubt she had a choice."

"Arvin…God…if she killed our child…"

"Jack, sit down," Arvin said. He led Jack to a chair and all but forced him into it, then sat down facing him. "Do you remember how upset she was? Even I could see it. It took her months to get over losing that baby. If she did cause the miscarriage, she suffered for it."

"She could have been faking."

"Do you really think anyone could fake that kind of grief?"

Jack thought back, remembering how she had sobbed for hours until she'd finally fall asleep, how she'd barely eaten anything for weeks. Jack hadn't known what to do for her, lost in his own grief. It had been Sydney that had brought her back. The three-year-old would climb into her mother's lap and hug and kiss her until she finally stopped crying. Laura had eventually started to smile again, but it had taken a long time. Could it have been anything but real?

Jack stood and grabbed the briefcase. "I need to go talk to her," he said.

Arvin nodded. "Emily and I will bring Sydney about five o'clock."

"Thank you, Arvin," Jack said, and left.