The Daydreams
by
Chris AndersonDisclaimer: Alias is the property of other people, including J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot productions.
Written for the Theatrical Muse 'daydreams' challenge.
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She dreams the way she has always dreamed, that all of the old lies were true. That Laura Bristow was the beginning and the end, the sum of the whole, not the legend, but the truth. (Afternoons when the campus had been warm and green, sunlight through the trees. Grading papers and stealing secrets, red ink and blood.) She dreams that Irina, Irina with her secrets and her Cold War assignment, had never existed. She dreams, and the Cyrillic writing in the margins of the old books washes away clean.
She dreams, too, of changing the past, if she cannot erase it. Of standing from her desk one night, setting aside the notes and the lesson plans... of going to Jack, the open book in her arms like an offering. Of saying, "There are things you need to know..."
She dreams of turning her back upon her past, upon those who made her what she is.
She dreams of crossing the seal of the Central Intelligence Agency, Jack at her side. Walking in.
She dreams of how different it all might be now, if she had done it all of those years ago. Of the secret world they could have served together, she and Jack- and of the stability, the normalcy they could have brought to their daughter's life. Together they could have protected her, prepared her...
She dreams that there are no pardons for the likes of Arvin Sloane. Dreams that he is painfully aware that it is she who has brought about his downfall. Dreams of taunting him with the last thread of the Rambaldi puzzle, laughing at him, mocking his lies. "Peace?" A shake of her head, a toss of her hair... "Peace, Arvin? Was that really the best you could do?" She dreams of a hundred kinds of revenge, but that one is the sweetest.
And she dreams, too, of bringing Jack into her world. If they could serve in heaven, why not reign in hell? She's seen what he can be, the anger and the darkness within him. She knows that beneath his facades there is a dangerous, ruthless man, and whether he knows it or not he is the only man she has ever found worthy to stand at her side. She dreams of sex, love, power, espionage...
Sometimes dreams come true.
She smiles to herself, and reaches for the phone.
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