A Fine Line

Author: Janet (SkyGirl5)

Genre: S/V, AU

Summary: It's been said that there is a fine line between love and hate. As far as Sydney Bristow as concerned, when it comes to her costar Michael Vaughn that line is from here to the moon and back and she is most definitely on the 'hate' side of it.

Disclaimer: Sydney, Vaughn, etc are properties of JJ Abrams and ABC.

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Chapters 1-10 // Chapters 11 - 22 + Epilogue

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Chapter 1

It was a scorching hot day in New York City. The sun beating down from its high position in the sky and the heat radiating out of the black tar streets did not help the fact that Sydney Bristow was trying not to sweat as she dodged cars on her way across 70th Street. She was late. She hated being late, especially to auditions. Her tardiness was not her fault though. Her doctors appointment had run long due to an over scheduling problem, so she was stuck running half way across the city to make it in time for her one pm call back. It was twelve fifty-eight and she had another block to run before she reached the 71st Street Theater. So much for warming up before the audition.

“Sydney! There you are!” her close friend, Cooper, hissed too her when she blew into the stage doors, stripping off her street shoes on the way. “Where’ve you been?!”

“Long story,” she breathed. She quickly pulled her dance shoes out of her bag before tossing the bag to Cooper. She hopped and nearly fell trying to shove them on her feet as she skidded out onto the stage apologizing profusely.

“It’s quite alright Sydney,” the director, Anderson Andrews, told her. “Just go ahead and begin.”

Sydney nodded to him and quickly took her position on stage before realizing she was still wearing her jeans, which, of course, she couldn’t dance in. Laughing nervously, she stripped them off, revealing her leotard below, and tossing them to the side of the stage before taking her position once more. She then took a deep breath. This part of the audition, the ballet performance, she was not nervous about in the least, having graduated from Julliard and spending two years with the New York City Ballet company before deciding to pursue her dreams of Broadway. Ballet was in her blood since her mother had been involved in the Russian ballet; it came naturally to her.

After a flawless performance, she exited the stage, picking up her jeans on the way, and rushed over to Cooper, who was clapping and doing his happy-Cooper dance. “Girl you were wonderful!” he exclaimed when pulling her into a hug.

“Thanks Coop,” Sydney laughed softly. Cooper was perhaps her oldest and dearest friend in New York City. They had met during her visit to Julliard before she was even accepted there. Cooper was her tour guide and then became her peer mentor (he was a class above her) when she decided to attend the school. After an injury put him out of commission from the first season of the New York Ballet, he decided to pursue his dream of Broadway. It was he who encouraged Sydney to do the same. When she agreed, he agreed to attend her first audition with her, especially since he was auditioning as well.

“I’m serious!” Cooper said. “You’re totally going to get the part of Marie!”

“Coop,” Sydney said with a half laugh, half sigh, “there is no way I’m going to get the lead role on my very first audition.”

Cooper shrugged casually saying, “You’ll never know. Have you seen these other girls?” he asked, lowering his voice significantly. “Their ballet is terrible and this musical is about ballet! Hello!” Sydney laughed and shook her head, shoving him lightly.

The two of them walked out into the audience part of the theater so that they could watch the rest of the auditions and wait for the final casting decisions to be made. Sydney quickly found that Cooper was right; most of the girls’ ballet was horrible and left Sydney cringing.

“My, my, my who is that?” Cooper exclaimed, practically drooling, when a tall, blonde haired, green-eyed man took the stage. “Now he is pretty.”

Sydney laughed and shook her head at her friend, who was always trying to get a date. She couldn’t disagree though; the man on the stage was most definitely handsome with his messy hair, strong jaw and chin dimple. Her appeal for him faded, though, the moment his ballet audition began. He was definitely lacking. Of course, he wasn’t the worst she’d seen by far, especially at that audition. After all, he did manage to stay on his feet for the entire performance, which was a plus; his technique simply wasn’t perfected, like hers.

After the green-eyed man left the stage two more men auditioned, though neither stuck out in Sydney’s mind as very good. Then, the auditions were concluded and the director told everyone to bear with him while he and the producer and choreographer made their decisions regarding the cast. “You’re definitely going to get the part of Charlie,” Sydney told Cooper, referring to the lead male character in the musical.

“Oh I don’t know,” Cooper sighed, rubbing his stubble covered chin. “There were a few very good auditions before you arrived…”

“Very good is one thing; you are excellent,” Sydney pointed out with a smile.

“Oh stop,” he told her with a laugh and a hand wave that made Sydney giggle.

They chatted for a few more minutes before the director took center stage, ready to announce the cast. “Without further ado – the cast for On Pointe. Playing Marie, the lead female role, will be… Sydney Bristow!” Anderson said.

Sydney let out a shocked screech as Cooper smothered her with a hug. “You did it babe I’m so proud of you!” he told her. Sydney shook her head in disbelief. Getting the first role she tried out for wasn’t something she had expected, but then again, she had been the best in her class at Julliard.

“Playing Charlie, the lead male role, will be… Michael Vaughn!” Anderson said.

Sydney looked at Cooper in pure shock. “Oh my god I’m so sorry – you were robbed. Who the hell is Michael Vaughn?!” she asked, craning her head to look around the theater. On the opposite end of the row she was sitting in, she saw a few men giving handshakes to the green-eyed man Cooper had dubbed ‘pretty’. It appeared this was Michael Vaughn.

“Oh my god! That’s terrible! He couldn’t dance for anything – you were so robbed, Coop, I’m so sorry!” Sydney told him, rubbing his arm.

“It’s alright,” Coop told her.

After another few minutes, all the parts had been given out. Cooper ended up with a role in the chorus, which he was happy about, since at least he was part of the musical. When all the new cast members collected on stage for a brief meet-and-greet, Sydney walked up to Michael Vaughn to introduce herself. They were going to be spending a lot of time together in the coming months so they needed to get acquainted.

When she introduced herself and explained who she was playing, all Michael Vaughn said in return was, “Okay… hi,” before walking away, leaving Sydney’s jaw on the floor.

“What was that?” Coop asked her quietly.

“Well, apparently in addition to sucking at ballet, Michael Vaughn is an asshole,” Sydney muttered to him while folding her arms over her chest. Somehow, she just knew, she was going to hate him.



Chapter 2

“I mean it’s just… so unfair and ridiculous,” Sydney ranted while stirring her steaming soup with her spoon, tying to cool it off. Cooper took her out to dinner to celebrate after their auditions, however, he hadn’t been able to get a word in edgewise; Sydney had ranted the entire time.

“Sydney, seriously, its oh-kay,” Cooper emphasized. “I like the chorus. I’m not upset about this at all – why are you?”

“Because!” Sydney said, slamming her hand down on the table, “This is injustice!”

Cooper sighed and rolled his eyes slightly. This was typical Sydney behavior; she always over dramatized things. Only, usually, it had to do with her not getting a part she wanted in the latest ballet, or her not being chosen as a special class representative, or her not being picked to be a peer leader at Julliard. Cooper had never seen her have such a reaction over someone else’s ‘injustice’. While he appreciated her concern, it really was no big deal.

“I mean, god – did you see how antisocial that Michael freak was?! I mean, hello would it kill you just to say hi to someone? Apparently it would in his case,” Sydney muttered under her breath before taking a spoonful of her soup.

“Maybe… he’s shy,” Cooper rationalized.

“How many shy Broadway performers do you know?” Sydney retorted; Cooper shrugged. “None, exactly. It’s a profession that demands you be outgoing. He’s probably just a stuck up pretentious asshole.”

“Or… he was having a bad day?” he suggested.

Sydney shot him a look. “Why are you defending him?!” Again, Cooper shrugged. “It’s not because you think he’s cute is it?! That is so not a defense. In fact, the fact that he’s cute – which, if you think about it, he really isn’t all that great – only makes him more likely to have an asshole complex. Besides, he might not even be gay.”

“How many straight male Broadway performers do you know – especially ones in ballet shows?” Cooper countered.

Sydney shrugged with a laugh, “Touché.”

After that, they finished their meal without any more complaining from Sydney. Then, they parted ways and went home to their respective apartments to get a good night’s sleep, for the following day their grueling rehearsals began.

~*~

The premise of the musical On Pointe was simple enough. The musical followed the life of Marie, a ballet student at a famous ballet school (essentially Julliard, though the school is never named). Though Marie is talented, she struggles with the discipline and devotion it takes to be a prima ballerina. The male lead in the musical, Charlie, is one of Marie’s dance instructors who tries to help her, though because of his short temper, isn’t much assistance. During the course of Marie’s studies with Charlie, she falls in love with him. Unfortunately, he does not reciprocate those feelings for her. In the end, Marie leaves the school slightly heartbroken because of Charlie’s dismissal of her feelings, but she gets a part in the corps de ballet at a well-known ballet theater.

Sydney was thrilled to begin work on the musical since it so closely mirrored her life. Of course she had never fallen in love with any of her teachers (most of them were female and the male ones were quite obviously batting for the other team, so to speak), but she had struggled at first to reach ‘prima ballerina’ status. Plus the fact that she had never done a musical before and had always wanted to added some extra thrill to her new job.

The day following the announcement of the cast, a Thursday, Sydney returned to the 71st Street Theater for her first practice having no idea what to expect. She arrived only moments before Cooper did and the two of them sat and chatted while the other performers filtered in one by one. Not surprisingly, Michael Vaughn was the last to arrive, which made Sydney, who hated tardiness, dislike him even more than she already did. That day, she didn’t even bother going over to say hello to him; there was no point.

“Okay people let’s focus here!” the director shouted out from the stage, trying to call the attention of all the chattering actors. Once the loud talking calmed down to an occasional whisper, he continued. “Today we’re going to be running through all the songs just to get you all familiar with them. I expect you all to start learning your lines ASAP!! Okay, the first song – The First Day of School – is sung by Charlie and the chorus,” he said. Then, he organized the chorus on one section of the stage and then pulled Michael onto the center stage and handed him a handful of papers that presumably contained the music and lyrics to the song. After reading through the sheet, Michael signaled the pianist to begin playing.

Before he began, Sydney snickered to herself, wondering how terrible Michael’s singing was going to be. However, the moment he opened his mouth and the first note came out, her jaw practically fell into her lap. What Michael obviously lacked in ballet talent, he made up for a few times over in singing ability. Sydney begrudgingly admitted to herself that his singing talents were far better than Cooper’s which was most likely the reason why he got the part. The character of Charlie doesn’t do all that much ballet during the show, mostly he sings, so it made sense for the casting director to cast someone whose strength was singing and not dancing.

The second song in the musical was Sydney’s. After Michael finished his song, Sydney took his place on the stage and sang her song. This pattern continued until all of the musical’s thirteen songs had been sung all the way through. One of the songs later on in the musical was a duet sung between Sydney and Michael’s characters. Never before had Sydney sung a duet, so she was slightly concerned about how it would go. She was pleasantly surprised, though, at how well their voices meshed together during the song.

Because of this, she decided that maybe she could give Michael a second chance to make a first impression. When their rehearsal wrapped for the day, she approached him and cleared her throat, announcing her presence. He looked over her with a slightly confused and almost annoyed expression. “I…um, just wanted to say good singing – I mean, you sing really well,” she said.

“Thanks,” he said shortly. “You, uh, sing good too… but I guess your strength is your dancing, right?”

Not sure if that was simply a comment or a backhanded insult to her singing, Sydney furrowed her brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked. Michael shrugged. “Well you’re one to talk!” she retorted before stomping away.

“Making friends?” Cooper asked as she passed him, obviously being sarcastic.

“I hate him,” Sydney grumbled. “Who is he to criticize my singing ability?!”

“Did he say that?” Coop asked, sounding slightly surprised.

“Well…no… not in so many words…,” she said evasively.

“What did he say?”

“That dancing was obviously my strength.”

Coop shrugged, not seeing the insult in that. Sydney gave a frustrated screech before stomping off towards the exit. Coop sighed and shook his head; it was going to be a long few months of rehearsal, he just knew it.



Chapter 3

In the following two weeks of rehearsal, the rapport between Sydney and Michael didn’t improve at all. It didn’t exactly get worse either; it simply didn’t exist. In those two weeks, they didn’t speak one word to each other, unless it was the song they were required to sing together, and, even then, they weren’t performing it to each other. Sydney viewed Michael’s seclusion during rehearsal a sign that he was a horrible and not to mention rude person. She simply didn’t buy Cooper’s explanation that Michael probably was a very shy person. In her mind, he was a jerk.

Finally, the situation came to a head when the director called Sydney and Michael over to him at the end of rehearsal one day. “You two,” he sighed, “I love you both, but this,” he gestured between them, “isn’t working.”

Sydney and Michael exchanged brief glances. “What isn’t working?” Sydney asked.

“The chemistry! The tension! Well, there’s tension – but it’s not the good kind! You,” he said, gesturing towards Sydney, “need to be in love with him when you sing. You love him more than anyone else you’ve ever loved. All I’m seeing now is, well, no love at all. And you,” he turned to Michael, “you care about her. You don’t love her – but you care. You need to show that. I need to see the heartache you feel about breaking her heart, yet you know it’s for the best.”

The director’s comments were met with blank stares by both of the parties in front of him. He sighed heavily. “Okay, okay, do you two know anything about each other? Anything at all?” Sydney and Michael stared at the floor giving an obvious negative response. “Well there’s a starting point. You cannot possibly love those you do not know. Now go, both of you – get to know each other!” he encouraged dramatically. “I want that song better tomorrow!” With that, he left, leaving Sydney and Michael standing awkwardly a few feet apart, both looking at the floor.

“So, um,” Sydney began. “Do you wanna talk over dinner?” As long as she had to suffer through Michael Vaughn’s company, there was no way she was going to suffer through her growling stomach.

“Sure, how about that pizza shop across the street?” Michael suggested. Sydney nodded in agreement. The two of them grabbed their things and headed across the street. They each ordered a single slice of pizza and took seats at a high table along one wall of the restaurant in silence.

“So, uh, do you have… a boyfriend?” Sydney asked.

Michael scoffed, nearly choking on his pizza in the process. “Typical,” he muttered.

“Excuse me?!” she asked sharply.

“Typical,” he repeated louder. “It’s typical that you would assume such a thing about me.”

“You’re not gay?!”

“Do I seem gay to you?” he retorted. Sydney gave a noncommittal grumble. He didn’t exactly seem gay to her, but, then again, she didn’t have much of an impression to go on. “No, I am not gay,” he clarified. “Not all male singers are gay.”

“You’re a dancer too,” she pointed out.

“And not all male dancers are gay either. Besides, I’m not much of a dancer anyway,” he said. Sydney bit her tongue to keep herself from making a snide remark about Michael’s lack of ballet ability. “I dance when I have to, but that’s about it,” Michael explained. “So what about you? Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Ha, ha,” she rolled her eyes at his sarcasm. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“What about that guy you’re always snickering with?”

“I don’t snicker,” she snapped. “And Cooper is gay.”

“Uh huh…”

“Why don’t you talk to anyone?” she asked.

“Why would I?” he retorted.

“Oh I don’t know,” she sighed in a dramatic tone. “Maybe to be… oh, I don’t know say, normal, social, polite, human – take your pick.”

“Oh I see – because I don’t share my life story with everyone in sight I’m not human, is that right? Well, I guess you should call Mulder and Scully then,” he told her.

Sydney’s eyes narrowed at him. “Are you always this much of an asshole?”

Michael’s eyes narrowed right back. “Are you always this pretentious?”

Sydney fumed. “You know, it’s obvious this just isn’t going to work.”

“What are ya gonna do? Quit?” he asked, sounding a bit too hopeful.

“No,” Sydney said determinedly. “You are.”

Michael snorted with laughter, shaking his head. “In your dreams honey.”

The two of them sat in silence before Sydney sighed in defeat. She didn’t want to get fired so she had to make it work. “Fine just… tell me where you’re from.”

“California,” he said. Sydney muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “That explains why you’re blonde,” but Michael chose to ignore it. “Moved out here last month to try my hand at Broadway.”

“Oh yeah? What’d you do back in California?” Sydney asked only somewhat interested.

“Helped my dad with his surf shop…in between trying to make it as a singer in Hollywood,” he told her.

“You didn’t?” Sydney asked, sounding slightly surprised. No matter how much she disliked him as a person, it was impossible to dislike his singing voice. It was just too good. She was shocked that a record company didn’t snatch him up right away. After all, it wasn’t like he was hideous or something.

“Nah, record companies kept telling me I was too Broadway after I wouldn’t sing what they wanted, so that’s why I came out here,” he explained. “What about you? Go to Julliard on Daddy’s dime did you?”

At this, Sydney’s head snapped up from staring down at her paper plate with half a slice of pizza on it. Her eyes narrowed at Michael’s smirk. “So what if I did? I’ll have you know I was the best in my class.”

“Ballet?” he asked; she nodded. “That’s funny,” he sighed, leaning back in his chair.

“What is?” she asked suspiciously. He shrugged innocently. “No, tell me.”

“Nothin’… I just woulda figured you were too big to be a dancer – height wise anyway,” he said, smirk growing across his face with the word ‘big’.

Sydney leaned in closer to him and said harshly, “And I would have thought you were too stupid to be a singer.” Then, she stood up quickly, nearly knocking the stool she was sitting on over in the process. “Look, this obviously isn’t going to work – us being friendly, so why don’t we just act like we care. That is what we’re supposed to do anyway – act that is, if you think you’re capable.”

“Oh I’m capable,” he assured her.

“Good,” she snapped. Then, she grabbed her bag and stormed out of the restaurant.



Chapter 4

“Sydney, is it at all possible for you to simply… coexist with Michael without growing more and more hostile towards him by the day?” Cooper asked with a heavy sigh. He, of course, knew this was a rhetorical question. Sydney, by nature, grew to hate those she simply disliked in the beginning. Rarely would the hatred go away save some extreme circumstances.

“No,” Sydney told him simply.

“Fine… at least sing like you love him, okay?” Cooper suggested.

“Oh, I will,” Sydney assured him. Then, she left his side and took the stage beside Michael, who was sneering at her. Sydney shut her eyes and took a deep breath, preparing herself for her performance. Michael, the asshole, wasn’t standing beside her. Instead, it was a puppy; puppies were impossible not to love. On Michael’s singing cue, Sydney opened her eyes and performed the best she could, under the circumstances that way.

“Better!” the director exclaimed at the end of their performance. “Much, much better! Now ladies and gentlemen tomorrow we will be starting choreography, so make sure to bring your dancing shoes!”

After the director’s praise, Sydney gave Michael a proud smile before sauntering off towards Cooper. “Better right?” she asked with a smile.

“To an untrained eye I suppose,” Cooper sighed. Sydney furrowed her brow at him, wondering what he meant. “Oh just… you know. You still had a look of hostility to him at some points. It was subtle but I’ve seen you do it enough to recognize.”

“Whatever,” Sydney muttered. “It’s not like it’s going to get any better than that I mean what do they expect? Me to fall head-over-heels in love with him?” then she snorted with laughter, obviously believing that to be almost as possible as being able to turn into a chicken with the snap of her fingers.

“Um, no, I think at this point they’d settle for arriving at rehearsal unarmed,” Cooper told her. Sydney rolled her eyes before walking away from him; that was obviously never going to happen.

~*~

Being that On Pointe was a musical, in addition to the singing, there was dancing. All but three songs involved some sort of choreography routine, the other three being soft, slow ballad songs where dancing wasn’t appropriate. Learning the proper choreography was as difficult, if not more difficult for some, than learning the actual lines. It took great physical stamina to be able to dance around the stage and then sing without being out of breath. This was a small problem for Sydney.

While she was used to dancing ballets that lasted for a few hours, during those routines she was silent; there was no singing or speaking. In that case, it didn’t really matter all that much if she was out of breath or breathing heavily, because that would have been unseen and unnoticed by the audience. Granted, the musical required less physical activity than ballets, at least for the most part, but still she struggled at first.

Being a perfectionist, Sydney hated struggling. She’d stay after the designated rehearsal time to practice some more and incorporate singing along with her dance moves. Within a few days, she was improving, but the constant mocking comments and looks from Michael weren’t helping her in the least. He’d walk past her and mutter something about needing to take a break or take five and then every time she appeared to be out of breath he’d laugh at her. By the time a week went by, she was at the end of her rope and wasn’t shy about it either.

On one such occasion when he was laughing at her from across the room she stomped her way over to him and stared him down. “What’s ‘amatter pretty boy? Oh I see, you must not be used to seeing people do real work being a surfer and all. Seriously, tell me, is it difficult to keep that blonde streak in your hair? Or, no, I know tying your board shorts in the morning – real difficult, right?”

Slightly annoyed, he removed the smirk from his face. “I was not a surfer.”

Sydney laughed. “But you told me yourself that you worked in your dad’s surf shop.”

“Yeah, key words being my dad’s. I worked there running the cash register, making change – you know, stuff that would make your little forehead crinkle up and completely boggle your mind as soon as you ran out of fingers to count on,” he retorted.

Growling slightly, Sydney took a step towards him, but before she could react verbally or physically, Cooper dragged her away. “Walk it off,” he encouraged to her quietly while Michael called out something about her little friend coming to save her.

“I hate him,” Sydney muttered.

“I know,” Cooper sighed with a slight eye roll.

“Okay, okay, let’s move onto the next song, shall we?” the choreographer announced to them. Sydney let out a slight groan at this. During that song, she would be in ‘dance class’ where Michael, as her teacher, had to pick her up to show the rest of the class a certain lift. She was not in the mood to be in the same room as Michael Vaughn let alone have him touch her, yet she had no choice.

Everyone took their positions and the song began. Sydney put aside the fact that Michael’s touch made her skin crawl for one moment so that their scene could be done correctly the first time around and, thus, having to repeat it a minimal amount of times. Unfortunately, almost as soon as Michael picked her up, he dropped her, causing her to smash painfully into the ground, butt first, followed closely by her back and then head. While Sydney was too stunned to move, a soft groan went through the class and Michael held back laughter. “I’m sorry,” he said in an incredibly insincere tone. “Are you alright?”

“You jerk face bastard!” Sydney growled at him. “You did that on purpose!”

“Me? Of course not!” he insisted, laughing softly that time.

From her position on the ground, Sydney smashed her fist down into his foot and then stomped on his other foot as she slowly climbed to a standing position. “Oops, it was an accident,” she mocked his casual tone while he glared at her.

“You know,” Michael began loudly, “I don’t think I’ll be able to pick Sydney up; she’s kinda heavy,” he said with a pointed look towards her. Sydney gaped at him and he smirked.

“I’m sure she’s not Michael, just try it again,” the choreographer said with a sigh.

Before taking her position once more, Sydney hissed to Michael, “Drop me again and you’ll loose your ability to have children.”

Michael had no intensions to drop her once more (once was enough for his own amusement), but he certainly wouldn’t have after that threat. Somehow, he just had a feeling she would definitely act on it.



Chapter 05

“…and just what is with that stupid smirk that’s always across his face?! God, doesn’t he have more than one expression?!” Sydney exclaimed.

Cooper rubbed his hands over his brow as he sighed heavily; he was getting a migraine. For what seemed like hours, Sydney was droning on and on picking apart every little quality of Michael Vaughn’s that she disliked. The worst part was that she did it practically every day, adding new things each time. It was really beginning to get old. “Sydney, might I make a suggestion?” Cooper asked. Sydney gave him a ‘yeah, sure, whatever’ look. “Just do him already.”

“WHAT?!” Sydney shrieked.

“I’m serious. Your hatred for him obviously stems from sexual tension. If the two of you just do it, you’ll get rid of that tension and hopefully go back to being normal adults and not bickering two year olds,” Cooper said. Really, he was just trying to save Sydney from herself. He wasn’t the only one annoyed with Sydney and Michael’s child-like behavior. The whole cast was getting sick of them constantly being at each other’s throats with no end in sight. With only one month of rehearsals down and over two until opening night, they weren’t quite sure if they were going to make it.

“I am not having sex with Michael Vaughn. That’s… disgusting,” she said with a slight shiver.

“Oh come on – he’s hot. You cannot deny that fact, Sydney, no matter how much you hate him. Plus it’ll be like killing two birds with one stone. You’re so…,” Cooper cringed, “uptight. You need a release. When was the last time you got one?” he raised an eyebrow at her. Sydney shook her head, turning slightly pink and refusing to answer his question.

“Exactly,” Cooper said. “Do it. You know Michael wants to.”

“Puh-leeze,” Sydney said in a disbelieving tone.

“You yourself told me he’s straight. If he’s straight he wants to do you – all guys are so predictable that way,” Cooper said with an exasperated sigh. Sydney shook her head adamantly. “Fine, whatever – do I need to find you someone else to get some with then?”

“You?” she suggested with a laugh.

Cooper shuddered. “Now that’s disgusting,” he grimaced. Sydney laughed.

~*~

After another less than satisfying rehearsal during which Sydney and Michael had argued over whose foot or whose hand went where for half the time, Sydney stayed late, practicing some of her moves. Finally, growing board with it, she walked over to the CD player in the rehearsal room and put in a CD of her own ballet music. Switching to her pointe shoes, Sydney performed her own version of a ‘cool down’ aka one of her favorite ballet routines.

Only a few minutes after she’d been dancing, Michael appeared in the studio doorway. Leaning against the doorframe, he watched her. It was clear that ballet was her strength and, even though he knew only the bare minimum about it, he could tell her performance was flawless. After a few minutes, she noticed him standing there, stopped dancing and asked with a tone of annoyance, “What are you doing here?”

“Free country,” he responded casually.

“Well leave. I was here first and I need to practice,” she told him.

“Yeah, you look like you need it too,” he said, though his tone was obviously sarcastic. She ignored him. “Hey – I need to practice too you know.”

“Of course you do,” she told him.

He grumbled under his breath, but stopped himself from making a snide comment. “I’m serious. I’d prefer not to fall on my ass opening night and take half the chorus down with me.”

“Fine. You, uh, want some help?” she offered casually. Okay, so that wasn’t exactly part of her speak-only-when-necessary plan regarding Michael, but she didn’t want him falling and making her look like an idiot either. Besides, it wasn’t as though she was going to take Cooper’s advice, a thought she shivered at.

“Yeah right,” he laughed. “Thanks, but no – I don’t really feel like being ridiculed right now.”

“No ridiculing I promise. I’ll just assist,” she told him.

He looked at her suspiciously. “Why are you helping me?”

“Oh would you just come on!” she yelled in a frustrated tone. Sighing slightly, Michael kicked off his street shoes and slipped on his dance ones before joining Sydney towards the center of the studio. Michael began his routine and Sydney tried to help him the best she could but, as it turned out, she was a much better student than a teacher.

After twenty minutes of frustrated trying, Michael gave up. “Enough of this junk,” he muttered, walking over to the CD player. “Time for some real music.”

“Oh yeah like heavy metal head-banging music? Or The Beach Boys?” Sydney asked, folding her arms over her chest.

“Uhhhh no,” Michael said. Then, he switched her CD with one of his. Unexpectedly, a soft waltz filled the room and Sydney was too stunned to even make a sarcastic comment. “The only kind of dancing I can do well is ballroom,” he explained.

“Kinda girly don’t ya think?” Sydney raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe,” he said, approaching her slowly. “But ballroom dancing lessons were my mother’s fiftieth birthday present – guess who she dragged along with her,” he said with a slight eye roll that Sydney couldn’t help but crack a smile at. Of course, she quickly wiped the smile from her expression when he placed one of his hands at her waist and picked up her hand with his other.

“What are you doing?”

“Baking a cake,” he said casually as he twirled her around before pulling her closer to him. “You’re not very good at this.”

“I’m not trying,” she defended, struggling to free herself from his grasp.

“So try,” he said, holding her tighter. She gave him a determined look before attempting to follow his lead. Unfortunately, since ballroom dancing was never her strong suit (in fact, she had only done it once before) she ended up stomping on one of his feet, causing him to laugh. “So Sydney Bristow has a dancing weakness. I guess you’re not a perfect dancing princess after all,” he said in a smug tone.

She growled at him. “You’re just so… you’re just… UGH!” Then, she pushed herself out of his arms. Before walking away she leaned over and firmly grabbed the waistband of his breakaway pants. Then, she yanked causing the first few buttons to pop. When she let go of his split in half pants, they drooped down to his knees as he gaped at her. With a proud smirk, she walked away. “See you tomorrow!” she called in a sing-song voice.



Chapter 6

“Could I have everyone’s attention please!! Now, there’s been a slight change in the song between Marie and Charlie,” the director said nodding between Sydney and Michael. He then handed out a handful of musical note sheets to everyone in the group. “As you can see, the song has been changed ever so slightly to reflect Marie’s feelings towards Charlie. Also, in the middle of the song Marie is going to kiss Charlie and-”

“WHAT?!” Sydney shrieked cutting him off. “I have to kiss him?!” she asked in horror, disgust obvious in her tone. A soft groan and eye roll went through the surrounding crowd; they knew that this could not end well.

“Jesus I don’t have herpes,” Michel muttered, though Sydney ignored him and sternly stared at the director.

“Yes, you do. It’s in the script and it’s saying there. Now, take a few minutes, review the song changes and then be ready to perform,” he told her.

Sydney huffed and stomped off to a corner, dragging Cooper with her. “How can they expect me to do this?!” Sydney demanded.

“Sydney, it’s a musical about falling in love – there’s going to be kissing. My god, it’s just a stage kiss – stop acting like you’re in kindergarten and you think he has cooties,” Cooper sighed, a bit sick of her attitude. She simply gaped at him before storming off once more.

After a ten minute song run-through, Sydney and Michael were prepared, but not looking forward to, doing their new song performance. Before they began, Sydney walked over to Michael and hissed to him, “If your tongue so much as touches me…”

“Don’t worry; it’s not like I want to do this either,” he retorted.

“Okay people! Now remember – Marie is in love with Charlie, so when she kisses him she really has to mean it, but Charlie does not kiss her back and he doesn’t move at all except to push Marie away. Got it? Okay!” the director told them. Then, Sydney and Michael took their places and the song began.

The whole time Sydney was singing, she could barely concentrate. All she felt was dread towards her up coming kiss to Michael. When that moment in the song finally came, she scrunched up her face, obviously in pain, and kissed him as though one would kiss a toad: quick, hardly touching, and with utmost disgust.

“No, no, no, no, noooooo!” the director stopped them with a groan. “Sydney that was dreadful! Kiss him like you mean it! Imagine that he’s the one man you’ve been dying to find all your life – the perfect man for you and kiss him again,” he instructed.

Taking a deep breath, Sydney shut her eyes and went for Michael’s lips once more. That kiss was better, since she didn’t appear to be in pain while doing it, but it was far from what the director asked of her. “Mm better,” the director said with a ‘so-so’ hand gesture. “We’ll work on it – go through the song again now; I won’t stop you,” he told them. Groaning slightly, Sydney went back to her starting position.

For the next hour and a half Sydney and Michael rehearsed their scene over and over and over. Since the scene was new, and hadn’t yet been practiced, they needed to get that scene up to the quality of the other scenes that had been practiced for weeks already. After that time, though, Sydney and Michael had to quit, feeling they’d go insane if they had to sing the same lines over one more time. They’d changed the scene multiple times and kissed each other a total of seventeen times. None of those kisses were at the high standard level the director wanted them to be at, but they were at least better than the first kiss.

“Ugh, I need to wash my lips in Lysol,” Sydney muttered to Cooper as they left rehearsal that day.

“Oh puh-leeze Sydney; you’re such a drama queen!” Cooper told her. “It’s not that bad. In fact, I think you enjoyed it.”

“PAH!” Sydney barked with laughter.

“You did; admit it. I bet his lips are heavenly soft with that nice pouty bottom lip that sticks out and you just want to bite it…sorry,” Cooper said, clearing his throat from his slip into the fantasy realm.

Sydney laughed softly. “Maybe you should be the one kissing him.”

“Don’t tempt me. Come on Sydney, admit it – there’s a little part of you that loves kissing Michael and that same part of you is going to go home and have a sex dream about him tonight,” Copper said.

“Ugh! I do not love kissing Michael! I hate kissing him! I hate him!”

Cooper sighed and draped his arm over Sydney’s shoulders. “There’s a fine line between love and hate, dear; a very fine line.”

“No, no there is not,” Sydney corrected. “There is not a fine line between love and hate. There is seven hundred miles worth of battlefield filled with trenches, electric fence and one very large mine field between love and hate!”

“Okay then,” Cooper said with a disbelieving laugh.

“I’m serious. I do not now, will I ever love Michael Vaughn. In fact, if I ever do I will dye my hair green,” she told him. The concept of loving Michael was ridiculous. He was an arrogant, self-centered, no dance ability, blonde surfer, pain in her ass. She couldn’t wait for their show to get started so it would be over and she’d never have to look at his hideous smirk ever again. Actually, she looked forward for just the show starting. Then, she’d only have to look at him on stage and with the blinding lights she wouldn’t be able to see much of him at that, which was a definite improvement over the six hours per day she was spending with him then.

A sly smile crept across Coopers face. “You, my dear, have got yourself a bet.”



Chapter 7

After the introduction of the kiss in On Pointe, even more tension filled each rehearsal. Of course, this wasn’t all that surprising since it left Michael and Sydney in even closer quarters, but still, no one could have expected how bad it became. They began bickering hourly about every teeny tiny thing that could possibly go wrong in their scene. All their mild (by comparison), miniature fights came to an ugly head one day while rehearsing their duet song.

Just as they kissed in the performance, Michael’s hand gently rested at Sydney’s waist, which had never happened before. He wasn’t even sure why he did it either. Usually his hands were kept limp at his sides since his character wasn’t supposed to do anything to reciprocate the kiss; his hand at her waist was subconscious. Unfortunately, Sydney jumped back from him like she’d been hit with an electric shock. “What the hell was that?! Why did you touch me?!” she demanded as though he’d done something extremely offensive, where as, really, he had barely touched her.

“I-I’m sorry I… it was unintentional,” he told her, confused by her harshness. When they were taking shots at each other it was one thing, but this was very unexpected.

“God what’s your problem?! Can’t you keep your hands to yourself you bastard!” she snapped.

“Sydney!” Cooper called out in a warning tone, but it was too late; the director intervened.

“That’s enough Sydney,” he said, stepping in between her and Michael. “I’ve had about enough of the hostility between the two of you. You’re hindering the rehearsals of this show and it’s gone on long enough. You’re both adults and you need to coexist harmoniously or you will both be replaced. Is that understood?”

“Yes,” Michael said quietly to him. Then he looked over to Sydney and saw tears brimming in her eyes. He couldn’t explain it but, somehow, he just knew there was more to her outburst than just his hand touching her waist.

“Yes,” she said in an almost silent voice a moment after Michael had.

“Good. I don’t care how you do it. Talk it out. Call a truce. Handcuff yourselves to each other for twenty-four hours so you’re forced to get along. I don’t care just do it and do it fast. Rehearsal dismissed,” he said with a sigh. Then, he walked away rubbing his brow.

Michael stared at Sydney for a moment after he left. She was looking down at the floor, tears still brimming in her eyes. Suddenly, she turned around and rushed out of the rehearsal room, not bothering to take her bag with her. Michael hesitated for a moment, not sure if she wanted to be alone or if he should follow her – he didn’t know if she would yell at or, worse, hit him. In the end, though, he decided to go after her.

He followed the faint sound of her footsteps down two flights of stairs to the street level of the building. When he heard a heavy metal door slam, he knew she went outside and followed her out into the alleyway beside the building. Michael hovered in the doorway to the alley for a moment, watching her. She pulled her arms tightly across herself, almost hugging her body. Her back was to him, but the way her shoulders were shaking, he could tell she was crying.

After a minute in the doorway, Michael stepped out onto the pavement, making sure to hold onto the door so it didn’t slam too loudly as it shut and thus startling her. His shoes scratched against the gravel ground, alerting her to his presence. She looked over her shoulder briefly and then looked away. “Go away,” she said quietly.

“Hey, I’m not gonna bother you… I just wanted some fresh air,” he said casually. “And, you know… incase you don’t want to be alone… I’m here,” he added after a moment of silence.

“What if I want to be alone?” she sniffed, still not looking at him.

“Do you?” he challenged. She didn’t respond.

They stood in silence for a solid five minutes, Michael standing ten feet behind Sydney. He watched the people passing them out on the street while occasionally glancing over to her to see if she’d moved or done anything (she hadn’t). Finally, Sydney slowly shuffled her way back towards Michael and around behind him to a black metal fire escape. She sat down on one of the steps and rubbed her cheeks clean of tearstains. “I’m sorry,” she apologized quietly, even though it was difficult for her to do so.

Michael turned and walked over to sit beside her. “Sorry for what?” he asked. She shook him off. She rested her head in her hands and her elbows on her knees, looking away from him. “Are you alright?” he asked softly after more silence hung between them.

“No,” she said, almost laughing. She glanced over to him and saw what appeared to be genuine concern in his emerald colored eyes. Sighing, she looked back towards the street and said, “My…my mother died today…”

“What?” he gasped. This he had not been expecting at all; not even close. “Oh god, Sydney, I am so sorry. You… you shouldn’t be here. You should be at home with your family and-”

“No,” she cut him off. He gave her a confused look. “I’m sorry, I mean, my mother didn’t die today. She died two years ago today; this is the anniversary of her death.”

“Oh,” Michael said, slightly relieved. “I’m still sorry. I know what it’s like to lose someone you care about.”

“No you don’t,” she snapped at him. “You still have both your parents.”

“True,” he sighed, leaning towards her slightly. “But just before I moved out here my uncle died and I was very close to him. I mean, I knew he was dying; he had lung cancer, but it was still hard.”

“My mom died of cancer too,” she said softly, looking over to him. “It was sort of sudden though. She died four months after her first diagnosis.”

Michael nodded slowly. “That… must have been hard,” he said, then cringed slightly. Of course it was hard you idiot! He scolded himself. He was never good at coping with death, so that was an awkward situation for him to be in. Yet, still, he was glad he was there instead of Sydney having to be sitting there sniffing back her tears all by herself.

“It was,” Sydney told him. “I mean, she’s the reason I did all this. She was a ballerina for the Russian Ballet.”

“Really?” Michael asked, sounding slightly surprised. Sydney nodded. “How’d she meet your father?”

“He went to London on business and she was performing there. She spoke about two sentences worth of English when they met, but she ended up following him back to Massapequa,” Sydney explained with a slight laugh.

“You’re kidding?” Michael laughed as well.

Sydney shook her head. “No. My mom always said that love is a language of its own…”

“I assume she did learn English though… right?” he asked cautiously.

“Yes,” Sydney said. “By the time I was born she was fluent..., but she still preferred Russian, which is why I’m fluent in both and my dad can say like… five words, because apparently languages are his weakness.”

“I see,” he said with a slight laugh.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few more minutes before Sydney turned to Michael with a slightly shy smile and said, “Hey Michael?” When he looked at her, she continued, “Thanks.”

“Of course,” he smiled back at her. Then he stood up off the stairs and looked down at his dance shoes, which were filthy, with a slight cringe. “Well I guess I should go…I mean, if that’s okay…?”

“Go on,” she encouraged. He gave her a slight nod before going back inside the building, leaving her alone on the fire escape with her thoughts.



Chapter 8

The following day, instead of rehearsals, Sydney, Michael and two of the other main characters went downtown to where their costumes were being made. While the chorus rehearsed, they had the pleasure of being measured, pinched and prodded with pins while the seamstresses tried to fit their costumes correctly. During the musical, Sydney was going to have three different outfits but only two wardrobe changes because one of the costumes was worn over the other (a leotard and tights). Michael would just be wearing one costume, which was actually two since he also put one on over the other.

Immediately inside the costume shop the men separated from the women to be fitted into their outfits. Sydney was being measured from head to toe when she heard a loud shout from the back room of the shop. The voice obviously belonged to Michael and she couldn’t stop herself from going over and investigating along with two of her musical costars. “What’s the matter?” she asked him.

He poked his head out from behind the curtain where he was changing. “I can’t wear this! I QUIT!”

“Michael don’t be dramatic; it can’t possibly be that bad,” Sydney told him.

“Oh it’s that bad,” he assured her. “It’s awful- wait, no what are you doing!? Get away! Stay back! I-” his voice cut off sharply when Sydney ripped open the curtain he was standing behind. She let out a shriek of laughter along with her two female costars at what they saw.

Michael was shirtless and, unfortunately, only wearing one item of clothing: pink tights. Luckily (for him anyway), his hands were covering a precious part of his anatomy, but it didn’t stop the girls from getting a general drift of his appearance. Within moments, Sydney was doubled over with her hands resting on her thighs as she laughed hysterically. A pink-faced Michael tried the best to hide himself, though pulling the curtain shut would have required using one or both of his hands, which definitely was not an option.

“Oh my god,” Sydney managed, tears streaming down her face. “That’s so awesome. Turn around and let us see the back!”

“NO!” Michael said firmly. “Jesus woman get a hold of yourself. You were a ballerina – haven’t you seen a man in tights before?!”

“Um, yes, yes I have,” she said, clearing her throat. “And it was funny then too. Besides,” she sighed, sauntering around to his other side as she looked him up and down, “this is much more interesting.”

“I’m sure,” he said, giving her an unappreciative look. “Would you kindly shut this curtain so I can take these off?”

“No,” she said, grinning. “You’re going to have to shut it yourself.”

Michael glared at her for a moment before attempting to shut the curtain with his elbow which, of course, didn’t work. “What’s the matter?” Sydney continued, grin never leaving her face, “Don’t you want us to see? Not very,” she cleared her throat, “well endowed are we?”

Grumbling, Michael sidled his way over to the edge of the curtain. In a quick movement, he turned around and shut the curtain with his hands, which, unfortunately, gave the girls a view of his backside. They howled with laughter as he muttered to himself and swore to drop them all down stage trap doors one by one.

After the amusement at Michael’s expense, Sydney returned to finish her costume fitting. When she was done, she collected her things and headed towards the exit only to be nearly knocked over by Michael, who was muttering to himself. “Excuse you,” she snapped when he trampled on her foot without acknowledgment.

“Oh… sorry…,” he sighed.

“Whats ‘amatta? Got your hose in a bunch?” she asked, amused.

“So funny,” he rolled his eyes at her. “No, I won’t be wearing tights thank you very much.”

“You didn’t actually quit, did you?” she asked, sounding concerned

“Why?” he raised an eyebrow at her tone. “You mean you don’t wanna get rid of me?”

“Well, you know,” she mumbled evasively as she looked down to her feet. “It’d be kinda hard to train someone else and we’re only like three weeks from opening night and…”

“Uh huh,” Michael grinned. “Well, I didn’t quit. I just managed to talk them into giving me leggings instead of tights – which are still bad, but not nearly as bad.”

“I’m sure,” Sydney told him. “But it’s a pity though – that we won’t get to see, um, you,” she cleared her throat, “in tights.”

“Want a private show?” he asked with a cheeky grin. She punched his arm and he winced as she pushed past him to walk out of the costume shop. “Hey wait up! Where are you going?”

“Um, I dunno… some errands, the subway… why?” she asked.

“Want company?” he offered. She gave him a suspicious look. He didn’t react for a moment, but then he sighed, his body slumping forward as he did so. “Okay, okay I don’t want to go back to my apartment and I’m bored.”

“What’s wrong with your apartment?”

“My roommate,” he growled. “He’s a filthy, jobless slob who hasn’t moved from the couch in about three months and is really starting to smell.”

Sydney grimaced. “Lovely.”

“So can I come?” he asked with a hopeful grin.

Sydney sighed as she looked at his expression. Running errands alone was no fun, but she wasn’t quite sure if she wanted Michael to be her accompaniment. “Fine,” she sighed, “as long as you carry all my bags.”

He rolled his eyes, but agreed to go along. “Where are we going anyway?”

“Well, first I’ve got to pick up my birth control pills, then I’ve got to buy some feminine products and oh! get a bikini wax. You should get one too you know, if you’re going to be in those tights,” she winked at him.

Michael stopped dead in his tracks. “Please, tell me you’re joking,” he croaked. The smile on her face made it clear that she was, in fact, joking. He grumbled at her, “You think you’re so funny…”

“Oh I know I’m funny… I was serious about the picking up the birth control pills thing – think you can handle that?” she raised an eyebrow.

“I think I’ll manage,” he sighed. They walked a few more minutes in silence before Michael said pointedly, “So, uh, is your boyfriend gonna mind that I’m shopping with you?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” She answered automatically.

“Oh?”

“Yes, as it turns out, it’s difficult to find straight, eligible men in the theater business – go figure.”

“I’m a straight man,” he pointed out.

“Yes, but you’re not eligible,” she told him.

“What? I don’t have a girlfriend,” he said quickly.

“Oh I know that,” she smiled. He gave her a confused look. “You’re not eligible because you don’t meet my standards.”

“Why? I’m male and breathing,” he returned.

Instead of responding to his shot at her, she simply shook her head. “See, you just answered your own question.”



Chapter 9

A week later began practice of the show at the theater where they’d be officially performing it. This meant that everyone had to have their lines memorized, which, everyone did, save a few slip-ups now and then. They began rehearsing each act of the show over and over again until it was perfect, which became very annoying and monotonous after a period of time.

Fortunately, from their first practice at the new venue forward, things went remarkably well for the On Pointe cast. It was obvious that the lack of fighting between Sydney and Michael was the reason for this dramatic improvement. Instead of stopping the entire rehearsal to yell at each other, they could make it all the way through a scene without stopping once, or, at least not because of Sydney and Michael’s bickering. Though the two of them would occasionally take shots at each other, it was more in a playful manner and definitely less menacing and disruptive.

The change was noted silently (at least silently in front of Sydney or Michael) by the entire cast. Only the director made a comment to them, thanking them for the improvement. Still, Sydney and Michael seemed to be almost oblivious to it.

“So how’d you do it? Call a truce?” Cooper asked Sydney as they were leaving rehearsal one day.

“What are you talking about?” Sydney asked in a tone that made it clear she had no idea what he was talking about.

“Between you and Michael Vaughn,” he clarified. “Did you do him?”

“Please,” Sydney rolled her eyes. “Nothings changed between us. I still hate him I just….tolerate him.”

“Uh huh,” Cooper sighed, making it clear he didn’t believe her in the least. “Fess up Syd – you like him.”

Sydney laughed loudly. “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life. There is no way I could possibly like Michael Vaughn.”

“So… if you don’t like him, what were you doing shopping with him yesterday at Macy’s,” Cooper asked, folding his arms over his chest.

Sydney quickly turned away from him, walking off in the other direction. Cooper followed, shouting more questions about that event to her. Finally, Sydney stopped and spun around asking, “What are you doing, stalking me?!”

“No of course not – you know Chad works there. He saw you,” Cooper said.

“Ugh fine!” Sydney groaned. “I was helping the moron shop okay?! Being a straight man he’s fashion challenged. I was just saving him from committing a crime against plaid, okay?”

“Sydney you don’t need to be so defensive. I mean, it’s a good thing that you’re not fighting with him anymore. Rehearsals are going much better and Anderson’s off your back. Besides, that song between the two of you is really coming along nicely,” Cooper pointed out with a smile. “I can feel the love.”

“Please,” Sydney rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me throw up on your Oxfords.”

“Fine, fine,” Cooper raised his hands in defeat. “It’s obvious you still hate the very sight of him.”

“Exactly,” Sydney said, though she didn’t sound all that convinced.

~*~

“Syd, are you okay?” Michael asked softly to her. They were just about to start their run through of the final few scenes of the musical, but Michael noticed Sydney looking slightly ill. She was leaning over a table backstage, sipping a bottle of water gingerly.

“What? Oh, yeah, fine,” she sighed wearily.

“Are you sure? I mean… you look kinda pale,” he said to her in a genuinely concerned tone. The last thing she needed to do was over work herself a week before opening night and thus make herself sick. The show couldn’t go on without her. Well, it could, but he didn’t want it to.

“I’m fine, really. Just a little tired,” she assured him. Then, sure turned and walked onto the stage, though she was walking very slowly. Concerned, Michael sat down on the table she’d been leaning on. He wasn’t in the final scenes of the musical; the last scene he was in was the one they had just finished, the duet between he and Sydney. At the end of that scene, his character said goodbye to her character, knowing that since they had feelings for one another and yet couldn’t be together, it was best they were apart. The final scenes of the musical involved Sydney singing a solo about her struggles and then going off to be a prima ballerina.

Michael sat on the table, watching Sydney float around the stage perfectly in her dance shoes, dancing while she sang. He was mesmerized by her. True, at first he had hated her…well, not hated, but was definitely annoyed by her. He found her to be very full of herself, which was not an attractive quality. That was why he teased her and tried to bring her down from her high horse. In time, though, he saw that she wasn’t the stuck up person he thought her to be. In fact, in the previous few weeks the two of them had grown to be almost friends. They’d shop together and chat after rehearsals. He wasn’t exactly sure what was going on between them, but he refused to let himself feel too much for fear that Sydney didn’t feel the same.

Almost at the end of Sydney’s solo, she tripped over her feet and flew onto the ground, landing with a slight thud on her rear end. She got up quickly, so she wasn’t injured, but by the way she was covering her face with one hand and holding her stomach with the other, it was obvious she wasn’t feeling well. “I’m sorry… I need to… I’m sorry,” she managed before quickly running of the stage and disappearing into the women’s changing area.

“Melanie!” the director called to Sydney’s understudy. “Can you please finish that scene and then do the next one! We need to check the lighting.”

Instead of watching Melanie, though, Michael, who was done for the day, hung around outside the women’s changing area, waiting for Sydney. It was about ten minutes before she came out dressed in sweats with her bag over her shoulder. Ignoring him, she walked towards the exit, but he followed her. They were out onto the sidewalk before she turned and asked, “What are you doing?” Her tone wasn’t annoyed, just tired and lackluster.

“Walking you home,” Michael said simply.

“Michael,” she sighed, “I’m a grown woman, I can walk myself home.”

“I know that,” he said, but he still continued to follow her. Luckily, she said nothing else in protest. Sydney walked down the stairs to the nearest subway station and got on the train that arrived just as they reached the platform. Michael sat beside her on the plastic bench seating and asked, “How far away do you live?”

“Only a few stops,” she sighed, gripping onto the nearby handle tightly.

Five stops later, she exited the train with Michael at her heels. Once back up onto the street, they walked two more blocks before Sydney stopped in front of a tall building. “This is me,” she said, digging in her pockets for her key.

“Oh, okay…I guess I should go then…,” he said slowly. It was only then that he realized he’d left all his things back at the theater where their rehearsals were.

“Probably…,”she said. Finding her key, she walked over to the door and put it in the lock. Before turning it, though, she turned to Michael and mumbled a quiet thank you.

“Any time,” he said.



Chapter 10

The following day, Michael arrived late to rehearsal practice due to missing the subway train he usually took, then getting off at the wrong stop of another train and a plethora of other catastrophes. He ran into the theater, stripping off his bag and street shoes on the way, and apologized for his tardiness. “That’s alright Michael,” the director told him. “We’re going to be starting with the second act today. Melanie will be playing Marie.”

“What?! Why!?” Michael asked. He struggled to cram his shoe onto his right foot until he realized it was his left shoe. Then, he switched quickly.

“Sydney is feeling a bit under the weather today; she won’t be coming to rehearsal,” the director explained simply. Then, he gestured for Michael to take the stage quickly.

Throughout their entire run-through, Michael wasn’t focused. All he his attention was focused on worrying about Sydney and whatever ailment was making her ‘under the weather’. Considering Sydney’s appearance the previous day, it was no surprise to him that she was, in fact, under the weather. However, from what he knew about her, she was a hard, dedicated worker. He figured it would take more than just a little headache or something simple to keep her from coming to rehearsal, especially only a few days before opening.

Because of this concern, Michael decided that during one of their ‘take five’ times from rehearsal, he was going to approach the man in the chorus Sydney always seemed to be talking to and thus, he assumed to be her friend. “Um, excuse me…Cooper, right?” Michael asked.

“Yes….,” Cooper said very slowly.

“Well, I was just wondering if you heard from Sydney today. I mean, is she alright?”

“I suppose, she didn’t really say much to me over the phone except that she wasn’t coming to rehearsal,” Cooper told him.

“Oh….well, were you going to check on her then?” Michael asked.

“Can’t,” Cooper said. “I’ve got a bachelor/bachelorette party to go to this evening… but…you could check on her, if you wanted. I could tell you where she lives,” cooper smiled at him.

“Well, actually, I walked her home last night; I know where she lives, just not what apartment numb-”

“Ten B,” Cooper told him quickly.

“Thanks,” Michael smiled. He was definitely going to pay her a visit after rehearsal was finished.

~*~

Unfortunately for Michael, rehearsal ran long due to a snafu with a few of the chorus members forgetting their new choreography and then one of them plowing into two others, injuring one of them. By the time they were finished, Michael was so starving he was convinced he was going to die. After grabbing a slice of pizza, Michael headed towards the subway, taking the same path he’d taken the day before when walking Sydney home.

When he arrived at her apartment, he searched for a buzzer of some sort, but found none. Luckily, someone leaving the building let him in and he headed towards the elevator, which was, unfortunately, out of service. Grumbling, he headed towards the stairs. Ten minutes later, he arrived on the tenth floor, panting slightly. He found apartment B and took a moment to compose himself before knocking.

A minute after knocking, he heard shuffling around inside the apartment, obviously coming from someone walking around. After another minute, he heard the door unlatch and watched as it opened slowly. “Michael…what are you doing here?” she asked. Her voice was harsh and dark circles were prominent under her eyes.

“I just wanted to see if you were okay… are you okay?” he asked slowly. Though, really, his question was rhetorical; she looked far from ‘okay’.

“I’m fine… I just…,” but her voice trailed off as she ran from the doorway. Michael could hear her bare feat slapping against the hardwood of her apartment quickly followed by a door slamming. Cautiously, he pushed open her apartment door and stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. He cringed slightly when he heard obvious sounds of retching coming from her bathroom.

Standing there, he took a moment to observe her apartment. Like all New York apartments or, at least the ones without multimillion dollar price tags, her living space was small, but used efficiently. Her kitchen was a tiny corner of her apartment right beside her bathroom and, along the opposite wall was a sitting area slash bedroom. Actually, he was surprised how large her apartment was being that she was living there alone on their meager salary (at least, he assumed her salary was comparable to his being that they were both the lead in the play).

After a few minutes of observing her neat but cramped space, Michael turned his head to the side when Sydney slowly emerged from the bathroom. “Sorry,” she mumbled as she shuffled her way to her bed and flopped down.

“It’s fine,” he assured her. “Do you want me to go and get you something? Crackers? Ginger ale? Drugs?”

“No,” she sighed.

“Sydney, are you sure you’re alright? I mean, for the past few days you’ve been looking really pale. Maybe you should go to a doctor or something or-”

“No, no,” she said with a wave of her hand. “I’m fine… it’s just those stupid birth control pills…”

“They’re…making you…sick?” he asked slowly, never hearing of such a thing. She nodded. He took a few steps closer to her with the realization that she wasn’t harboring some flu-like disease. “Oh… well did you stop taking them?”

“No.”

“Why not?!” he gasped. “Do you have some extreme need for them? I mean, obviously they’re making you really sick.”

“With opening night coming I can’t afford to be all…PMS-y,” she said quietly.

“You can’t afford to be pukey either,” he told her. This elicited a small smile from her.

“I thought the nausea would go away,” she said with a slight shrug.

“Has it?”

“No.”

“How long has it been?”

“Two weeks…”

“Sydney! Stop taking the pills!” Michael told her seriously as he walked closer to her. “You’re going to make yourself worse if you don’t.”

Sighing at his genuinely concerned tone, Sydney flopped down on her pillow and grumbled, “Fine. I’ll stop.”

“Good,” he smiled. “Now what can I get you? Anything?” She shook her head. “Oh come on you must need something and I know how much you love using me as a slave,” he told her.

Sydney couldn’t help but crack a small smile at this; he did have a point and he was offering… “Well, could you maybe… scratch my back for a few minutes?” she asked cautiously.

“Of course,” he smiled at her. He sat down on the edge of her bed and reached around behind her so that he could scratch her back. She let out a soft sigh at his touch. “Whatcha watchin’?” he asked, gesturing towards the TV where there was obviously something that was paused.

“Oh… it’s nothin’ really…silly…,” she mumbled.

“No, what is it?” Michael asked.

“It’s um…a video of my mom dancing,” Sydney said in a slightly embarrassed tone. “I always watch it when I’m sick.”

“Can I see some of it?” he asked. She nodded and pressed ‘play’ on the remote beside her face. From the scene that began on the TV screen, it was obvious what ballet her mother was performing. “Cinderella.”

“Yep,” Sydney said. “She always said this was her favorite show… and I always wanted to be Cinderella in a ballet just like her. I almost got to … not to be Cinderella, but to be one of the other dancers, but then I…,” she laughed softly, “I fell down stairs and broke my hand, so I couldn’t do it and I was so mad because I was like, I don’t need my hand! I only need my feet and they’re fine!”

Michael laughed softly; he could completely picture her saying that. “I hope you get to be Cinderella one day,” he told her. She gave him a soft smile.

Michael rubbed her back until he’d practically lost all feeling in his finger tips. By that point, he noticed she was practically asleep. Gently, he removed his hand from her back, but his lack of touch caused her to stir. “I guess I’ll, uh…go,” he told her softly.

“Okay…,” she said in a sleepy voice. “Thanks…I don’t like being alone when I’m sick…”

Michael hesitated for a moment before asking softly, “You want me to stay?”

“Would you?” she asked as she pulled back the bed covers behind her.

“Sure,” Michael sighed. He slid in between her and the wall and crawled underneath the covers, gently rubbing her back once more. Then, noting she was asleep, he switched off the TV and the lamp by her side and then lay back down next to her.

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Chapters 11 - 22 + Epilogue