The Perfect Weapon Ending 1 Chapter 1004: Part 1
Chapter 1004 Part 1
As the four of them exited the prison, they all automatically slipped on their sunglasses and paused for a moment. Jack sighed and stood still, relaxing as he enjoyed the warmth of the sun on his body, even if he was remembering the last time---
Kendall shook his head. “Jack,” he began, “I know you’re in a hurry to leave your former prison behind, but-“
“What?” Sydney asked. “This is-“ She turned to look back at the building, squinting, trying to remember, but nothing came to mind. Had she never visited....But no, her father had mentioned in that phone call to Derevko in Kashmir that those interrogating him had been careful to hurt him only where his bruises would not be visible when his daughter visited. She shivered, finally realizing that this visit had been terrible for more than one reason. It was a good thing her father was so strong.
“Yes. This is the prison in which I was also incarcerated,” Jack said, trying to shrug, not realizing that it looked more like a shudder. Sydney stared for a moment.
“How did you know that?” Sydney asked of Kendall.
“There is no substitute...” he began and they all finished together, “For exhaustive background research.”
“And symmetry?” Vaughn asked.
“Well, that was one reason,” Jack admitted. “But the main reason is that it’s the closest federal prison to LA and when Sydney wants to visit-“
“Did I visit you here?” Sydney asked as she began walking automatically toward Vaughn’s car, not noticing the looks Vaughn and Kendall were shooting her.
“Yes. I’m...glad you don’t remember,” Jack admitted, staring back at the imposing gray edifice behind them, then shaking his head, began moving forward. “If no one minds, I’d like to leave now. Move on.”
“I’ll call you later, ‘kay, Dad?” Sydney asked, stopping to touch her father’s sleeve.
He nodded and when she said nothing more, began to walk away quickly, reaching the driver’s side and unlocking the door.
“I’ll be there in a minute, Jack, I need to talk to Vaughn about something,” Kendall called out as he walked toward the younger couple.
“What did you-“ Vaughn began, his brow furrowing.
“I need to speak to you about your idiot of a girlfriend there,” Kendall ground out, stalking toward Sydney. “Listen up, girlie,” Kendall said, grabbing Sydney by the arm. She shrugged it off as he began, “I may be the most obtuse guy in the world, but even I can see that your father must be...." Kendall grimaced. "Hurting on some level. Go over there and do...something. Whatever it is that a daughter should do for her father who just closed the longest chapter in his life. Like..oh, I don’t know...talk? About something other than yourself?”
Sydney’s jaw tightened and she reached an arm out to open the car door. A hand came down and stopped her. Shocked, she looked up at Vaughn. “What the-“
“As much as it pains me to admit it, Kendall’s right,” Vaughn said softly, looking down, then back up again. Meeting her eyes, he said, “You and Jack need to talk. Ride home with your father.” When she did not move, he gave her a little push.
“But he should be the one and he doesn’t really need-“ she began, digging her heels in literally and figuratively.
“Don’t be stubborn and obtuse, Syd.” Vaughn responded, remembering how Derevko had accused Sydney of sharing the stubborn gene. He shuddered, thinking of what they had just witnessed, that self-delusion that was in part stubbornness, an unwillingness to admit error. “Do NOT make this mistake.”
Kendall looked up sharply as he heard Jack’s car engine start, he said urgently, “Hurry. No one has all the time in the world, a series of endless tomorrows. Didn’t you learn that yet? Go. Now.” He looked at her, then nodded, gave a jerk of his head in Jack’s direction.
Vaughn touched Sydney’s cheek, “I heard what you said to Derevko. That our choices make us what we are. Make a choice. Make the right choice. Sometimes, this is the chance, the moment. Go.”
Sydney looked at both of them, remembered saying to her father only the night before that if two people tell you something, perhaps you need to listen. She nodded, then sprinted over to her father’s car. Knocking on the window, she motioned for him to unlock the door. The minute he did so, she jumped in. Seeing the drawn features, the exhaustion that had not been there a few minutes ago, she sighed. Damn it, Kendall of all people had been correct. That just....sucked. Putting a hand on Jack’s arm, she said softly, “Daddy? Maybe....maybe we should talk?”
“I...How are you doing? That must have been difficult for you,” he began, looking out the windshield at the sunlight hitting the windshields of the cars as he put the car in motion and they exited the prison parking lot.
Squeezing his arm until she knew it must hurt, she waited until he turned to face her. “That must have....been difficult for you, too?”
“Do you want to talk about this?” He asked incredulously.
“Kendall yelled at me,” she said petulantly. He bit his lip to keep from laughing, the first time he had wanted to all day.
“Kendall?” Jack asked in surprise. What was going on with that guy today?
“And Vaughn!” That traitor, she thought, crossing her arms and staring straight ahead. She sighed. She should be asking him---
“Poor baby,” Jack said, amusement lightening his features. “But....I wouldn’t mind talking. I just...don’t know where to start,” he admitted.
Kendall looked over at Vaughn and sighed as the younger man pulled out his cell phone the minute he sat down in the driver’s seat. Kendall asked, “You do realize that they are going to screw this up, don’t you?”
Vaughn was punching a button on his cell phone. “I’m already calling Barnett.”
“You have Barnett on speed dial?” Kendall asked incredulously.
Vaughn shrugged and looked up at the roof of the car. Then said, “Given who my girlfriend is, given who her parents are, you wonder that I have a therapist on speed dial?”
“Good point. Somehow I don’t think that’s all of it,” Kendall said speculatively. “But forget it, I don’t want to know. I’ll come to your funeral. I have a black suit. However, I don’t want to know in advance. I’d like to be able to sleep at night occasionally, not imagining Jack Bristow’s latest choice of torture methods.”
Vaughn shuddered. “Me either. But...why were you here today anyway? Just waiting around? Oh, Susan? This is Michael Vaughn. Did Dr. Barnett leave that time space open- Yeah, I think it would...Okay, thanks.”
In the other car, Sydney’s phone rang. “Sydney, this is Dr. Barnett. I understand that you and your father just left Irina Derevko. Is that true?”
“Yessss,” Sydney said, her brow creasing. Covering the phone, she hissed at Jack, “I thought you were done seeing Barnett. Did you tell her what we were doing today?”
“Yes, but not as my therapist and although she once mentioned seeing me one more time and a long time ago mentioned seeing you and I together....” Jack said, his brow also getting that same vertical crease.
“Sydney, I’d like to see both you and Jack in my office as soon as you return to LA,” Dr. Barnett said firmly, knowing she needed to stock up on pain reliever before the Bristows arrived. “I have it on good authority that this is the time.”
“I---- Let me ask Dad,” she answered, perplexed by the request that was really a demand. “Barnett wants to see us both in her office asap.”
“That...little....meddling....Why don’t I have a pencil?” Jack said, grinding his teeth. “Tell her sure, then dial Vaughn’s number and give me the phone.”
Kendall asked, “Why don’t you put your phone away?”
Vaughn answered, “Because any second....” beep, beep. “There he is.” Vaughn flipped open his phone and said with a smile, “Hi, Jack.”
“You little meddling French-“ Jack began and then swore in every language he knew, until Vaughn rolled his eyes and began laughing.
“Dad, seriously, you need to teach me some of those words,” Sydney began to giggle.
Jack stopped swearing at Sydney’s comment and growled, “You don’t need to know those words.”
“Oh, Dad. I’m an agent, when you think of the things I’ve seen and-“
“That is hardly the point, Sydney Bristow and-“
“Jack, you’re such a dad,” Vaughn said into the phone, raising his eyebrows at Kendall’s snort and muttered comment, “You are either brave or stupid.”
“Vaughn, let me tell you when you have a daughter of your own....” Sydney stared at her father as he stopped to smile one of those evil grins.
“What is it?” she whispered.
He whispered back, “I hope he has a daughter just like you.” Sydney laughed and slapped at her father’s arm.
“Jack, if you’re done cursing me - because I did hear that last comment - I have a question,” Vaughn said carefully, wondering if he was imagining a strategy where none existed....
“Sure,” Jack sighed, as he took the curve of a road entirely too fast, Sydney thought, her eyes growing wide. Geez, slow down, she thought silently.
Vaughn took a breath and asked, “Did you set Derevko up with that song? Lead her to this moment, with that song? So long ago? Or was it just serendipity? But no... Did you begin setting her up that long ago?”
Jack paused and Vaughn half-expected him to use that new, obnoxious Jack-phrase, ‘Who? Me?”
Vaughn asked again, “Did you set her up?”
Jack merely said, “Yes.”
“Dayumm,” Vaughn muttered. Wondered why he thought he could play a game on Jack, as sweat appeared on his forehead, that he could feel was furrowed enough-
“How many furrows on your forehead, Vaughn?” Jack asked and rang off.
“What was that about, Vaughn?” Kendall asked as Vaughn put his phone down. “The song? Hotel California?”
“You know that song?” Vaughn blurted out.
Kendall rolled his eyes. “Contrary to popular belief, I do not crawl out from under a rock every morning, Agent. I have had a life.”
“Too much information,” Vaughn mumbled under his breath.
“The song? Derevko?” Kendall prompted, raising his brows.
“Jack - on the way home from India so long ago - he was singing that song to help Sydney remember something from her childhood. And Irina joined in and then she sang it again back there,” Vaughn said thoughtfully.
“Wait...Jack was singing....Even for Sydney....A...doubleplay, Jack always wants a doubleplay....” Then Kendall looked at Vaughn sharply. “You realize what he did - he set her up for this moment with that song, so long ago, on that plane ride home from India? That’s what you were asking? And he confirmed it?” Vaughn nodded. Kendall looked out the window and shook his head, “If she had made a different choice, that would have just been a nice memory, that sing-a-long on that plane. But with this choice, he not only destroyed that memory and the original memory, when she realizes he set her up, he set her up to see, hear that she was a prisoner of her own device. Day-umm. That’s good.”
“In a totally frightening kinda way, yeah,” Vaughn agreed.
“Glad that’s your family, not mine,” Kendall quipped, watching Vaughn blanch. “I can just see the negotiations ahead about Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
“Kendall, what are you doing here, anyway?” Vaughn asked after a long silence, deciding he really didn’t want to contemplate negotiating anything with Jack.
“Well, it occurred to me that this might be a difficult...situation for Jack,” Kendall said, watching Jack’s car speed ahead.
“It occurred to you?”
“Alright. It was pointed out to me.”
“By whom?”
“Barnett.”
“Dr. Barnett talked to you about the Bristows?” Vaughn asked, then grimaced, hearing that faint squeak. At least Jack wasn’t in the car, he sighed in relief.
“No. She never tells me anything, doesn’t trust me for some reason--” Kendall said with a smile.
“The mind boggles at her distrust,” Vaughn commented, rolling his eyes.
“It does, doesn’t it? So she wouldn’t tell me anything when I asked her the other day if I should....be concerned about Jack and Sydney,” Kendall explained.
“You asked THAT question? You went to the trouble of asking her...” Vaughn said, shocked almost speechless.
“Yes. The two of them are my best agents and my biggest headaches and---”
“What did Barnett do?” Vaughn asked curiously.
“She just gave me a book on grief and told me that there is no substitute for extensive background research.”
“Maybe we should just have that engraved on the Company letterhead,” Vaughn groused. “Which meant----“
“I went back through Jack’s files. Again. They are voluminous. The guy has been on more missions, given more headaches to more supervisors than any man should, found ways to run endgames around whoever was in his way, let me assure you. Refused missions in his area of expertise---”
“His area of expertise?”
“Yeah, you ever read his dissertation?” Kendall asked laughing. “But no, seriously, the files that were most helpful were the ones from the Task Force investigating him. If his friend Dave had not been on it...I’m not sure Jack would have been exonerated. He might be in that prison still. Or dead. Derevko framed him very well.”
“What did this Dave do?”
“He asked ‘what if?’ questions. What if, Jack had just fallen in love, like human beings do? And been the victim of a sting? What if his wife had just been a better gamesplayer than he was? What if she had fallen in love with him too? And Sloane picked up on that cue, and ran with it and ran game theory on it and Jack was exonerated. Of course, that was merely to get Jack out so he could later use him, but....it was really Dave that saved his ass, asked the correct questions. The truth didn’t save him, because it would have been ignored because the Agency wanted a scapegoat in their hands. It was his friend, asking, pushing....”
“Shit. But Jack would not appreciate you---” Vaughn warned.
“Yeah, well. But...the files were helpful. Did you know that everyone who knew Jack and Laura were united in their belief that she adored him, that he loved her deeply and....then I’m looking at this book on grief and it occurred to me that this is in some ways like a second death that Jack is living through. And of course, I didn’t know you and Sydney were coming up here. To say nothing of Weiss. And the Zamir girl. Because I know nothing of what goes on in my own office.” Kendall glared at Vaughn.
Vaughn said blandly, “Nia would not appreciate being called a girl, I assure you. Like Sydney, she could whup your ass in a heart beat. But why did you tag along...I still don’t see it.”
“There is much you don’t see, Agent Vaughn,” Kendall said pompously, trying to annoy, not appreciating the comment about that girl, okay, woman. He really needed to watch his words around women, Jack had told him that more than once recently. But calling Sydney, ‘Girlie’ had gotten her attention, hadn’t it?
“If I wanted to hear a Jack Bristowism, I’d talk to Jack Bristow. Why did you tag along? Or are you just afraid to tell me?”
“I tagged along, because it occurred to me that - operating under this false assumption based upon my ignorance, since no one tells me what’s going on in my own office, that Jack was going up here on his own - it would not be a....pleasant experience for Jack to be alone on this trip to say goodbye to someone he once loved.”
“That actually occurred to you?”
“Does this stun you, Vaughn? More evidence that I don’t crawl out from under a rock each morning?”
“I did think I felt the earth shaking this morning,” Vaughn muttered. “The size of that rock must be tremendous. But how did you know?”
“I remember what it felt like when my own marriage ended and-“
“Oh, you’re divorced? Of course,” Vaughn said, shaking his head.
“Shut up,” Kendall growled and pulled out his own phone. “Jack, it’s Kendall.”
Jack stared at his phone and mumbled, “I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten this many personal phone calls in one day, let alone- What, Kendall?”
“Later tonight, I’d....like to buy you a drink. If you want.”
“Huh?” Jack said, then winced at the sound, not even a word that had come from his mouth. When Sydney stared at him in surprise, he quickly said, “I beg your pardon. What did you just say?”
“I was just asking-“
“Wait a minute. Why did you come along on this trip anyway?” Jack shook his head. “You never answered before when I asked, just kept babbling and I was too...”
“Well, you were a little focused on what was going to happen to care that I didn’t really answer. And then when we got to the warden’s office, you were busy making more deals to ensure more comfortable conditions for Derevko. Seeing if she could teach a class eventually? The library? The therapist? You behaved....better than I did when my marriage ended,” Kendall admitted.
“I’m a big man,” Jack said dryly. “And teaching the class was Sydney's idea. It doesn’t cost me anything but money. But...That’s hardly the point. Why did you tag along, tell me you needed a ride up to the prison?”
“I invited myself along because I thought you could use the company. And that’s why I want to buy you a drink tonight. I remember when my own marriage ended and being alone tonight is not the best idea...”
“Oh,” Jack said blankly. At Sydney’s quizzical look, he covered the phone and whispered, “Kendall wants to buy me a drink tonight because he says he remembers when his marriage ended. What’s that about?”
Sydney whispered back after a second, “I...think he’s trying to be friendly?”
“Kendall, are you trying to be friendly?” Jack asked with surprise in his voice.
“Eureka, the best games strategist I’ve ever met finally figures it out,” Kendall said sarcastically.
“Well, never in my wildest theories could I imagine that you and I would be-“ Friends? Jack thought in surprise.
“I told you before that we didn’t have to be enemies.”
“But-“ Jack said, still stunned. What else was going to happen today?
“Jack, this is not rocket science, a Marshall explanation, or one of your endless debates. You want a beer or not?”
“Well, I don’t want to buy Barbies. Like certain people did last night. So, sure. I’ll call you later,” Jack said and rang off.
Sydney let out a peel of laughter and shook her head. “Dad, you are a bad man,” she giggled. “It’s one of the qualities I love best about you.” Then she stopped laughing at the shocked look on her father’s face.
Kendall pocketed his phone and asked Vaughn, “What was Jack talking about, that having a beer with me would be better than buying Barbies? Last night? Weren’t you visiting Jack last night? He mentioned that when I spoke with him this morning.”
Vaughn groaned. “Let’s not talk about the Barbies under my bed.”
Kendall twisted to stare at Vaughn. “Agent, is there something you want to disclose to me at this juncture? Some...personal peccadillo...? I mean, I would not dare to judge your...private life, but....”
“I will kill Jack, I will kill him. I just want to win ONCE,” Vaughn muttered.
“Your Barbies, Vaughn? Did you start to become interested in them when Jack gave you Hot Look Ken?”
“I am not interested in Hot Look Ken!”
“Okay, was it the Happy Family? Or Butterfly Tattoo Barbie -- I mean you do have that tattoo of your own, which I might remind you, as Jack reminded me, is not acceptable for a field agent, that kind of identifying mark. I mean....look at how that tattoo that somehow appeared on Sark... In any case...was it Butterfly Tattoo Barbie that did it? Is she one of your Barbies under the bed now? Did you want to tell me---”
“They’re not MY Barbies!” Vaughn exclaimed and resigned himself to a long drive home, realizing that he had long since lost sight of Jack’s car speeding ahead of him on the freeway home.
TBC at Chapter 1004 Part 2 section 1 of 5