Hermes

Author: Janet (SkyGirl5)

Genre: S/V, Alias Related (Sydney's missing 2 years)

Summary: Meet me tomorrow at noon at the church across the street. Go into the confessional closest to the front of the church. I have information regarding Sydney Bristow.

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

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Chapters 1-10 // Chapters 11 - 16 + Epilogue

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Chapter 11

“Michael… this is a surprise. I thought you were staying in Rome a bit longer to speak with Hermès,” Jack said to the younger man on his doorstep.

“Well, actually, there’s been an interesting development regarding Hermès – something we needed to talk about in person,” Vaughn told him. Jack nodded and ushered him inside. Vaughn stepped over the threshold and walked back into Jack’s house, making sure to keep his left hand firmly in his jeans pocket. The last thing he needed was for Jack to see it and have a reason to shoot him in the face before he had a chance to explain.

“What is it?” Jack asked.

“I found out who Hermès is,” Vaughn told him. Jack gave him an intrigued look. “It’s Sydney,” Vaughn said bluntly.

For a solid minute Jack stared at him looking utterly befuddled. “Excuse me?” Jack asked, his voice very quiet.

“Sydney is alive. She’s Hermès and Julia Thorne too,” Vaughn told him.

“Sydney’s… alive?” Jack asked, sounding almost emotional. Vaughn nodded and gestured towards the nearby couch to sit down on. Once seated, Vaughn began to summarize what Sydney told him about being held captive by the Covenant, being brainwashed into believing she was Julia Thorne and the various tasks which she had to perform as Julia.

“So they’re using her to do their bidding? Why?” Jack asked.

“We don’t know,” Vaughn said, his tone indicating his frustration on the subject. “Cole wanted her for something… probably to be his toy… the sick bastard,” he muttered.

“Well now that we know, we can work on this. I take this to Kendall and-”

“No,” Vaughn cut off the older man. Jack looked at him in shock. “Sydney doesn’t want anyone to know. That’s why she came to me as Hermès; she didn’t even want me to know, thinking we’d all be in danger that way… but when I figured out that she was Hermès and called her out on it she didn’t deny it, which is how we got here…”

“Fine, we’ll just keep on the lookout for Julia Thorne then,” Jack said. “At least we know she’s alright…”

“Yeah,” Vaughn said with a soft smile at Jack’s immensely relived tone. “Jack I was… I was wondering… You know how I love Sydney and I… I want to marry her so I was wondering – hoping I could get your blessing…,” Vaughn said cautiously.

“Of course Michael,” Jack said without hesitation, causing Vaughn to sigh with relief. “Of course; I couldn’t think of anyone better for Sydney.”

“Good,” Vaughn said, a cheeky grin crossing his face as he pulled his left hand out of his pocket, “Because we’re already married.” This, of course, was a very dangerous thing to do, but Vaughn believed (or at least hoped desperately) that his rapport with Jack was strong enough to prevent Jack from shooting him in the face.

Luckily for Vaughn, Jack merely gave him an unamused, borderline annoyed look. “What? It was Sydney’s idea! She insisted on it and… I couldn’t say no,” Vaughn said with a slight shrug.

“I see,” Jack said in his typical even tone. “Will you be going back to Italy soon or are you staying?”

“Gonna stick around for a while,” Vaughn said. “It’ll be at least a month before I can see Sydney again. She thinks its best we cool things down for a while considering how much time we spent together over the past few days…,” he let his voice drift off at the look on Jack’s face. “Honeymoon…,” he added stupidly.

“I assumed as much,” Jack said with a stern stare.

“Anyway I’ll be at Weiss’s….,” Vaughn said as he slowly got off the couch and slipped past Jack before practically running from the house.

~*~

“Vaughn buddy! Don’t you look like a bright ray of sunshine,” Weiss laughed at the sight of his beaming best friend. “What happened to you?”

“Nothin’,” Vaughn said causally. He realized he wasn’t wearing his mopy face, the expression that had become the norm over the eleven months away from Sydney. However, along with her return came the smile on his face and the spring in his step. He just couldn’t help it; he was beyond happy.

“Yeah huh there’s something totally different about you,” Eric said. Vaughn shook his head while consciously cramming his left hand down into his pocket. “Yes there is – don’t lie. Did you meet a girl? Because, you know, that’s okay if you did.”

“No, Eric, I didn’t meet a girl,” Vaughn sighed.

“Maybe you should,” Eric suggested. Vaughn shot him a look. “I’m serious! It’s been almost a year Michael. Moving on is okay.”

“I’m not moving on from Sydney, Eric; that’s not possible,” Vaughn told him seriously. Of course that was impossible since he was married to her, which Weiss could not know. Even if Sydney had not been alive, though, Vaughn could not see him moving past her, definitely not in the near future anyway.

“But-”

“Please just drop it Eric, I don’t want to talk about it,” Vaughn told him in a stern tone.

Eric nodded his head in defeat. “So how’s Hermès?” he asked, changing the subject.

“She’s good,” Vaughn told him.

“She?”

Vaughn nodded. “Found out she’s a woman.”

“Maybe you could date her,” Weiss suggested. Vaughn threw a pillow at him from the nearby couch. “KIDDING – sheesh can’t a guy even joke around here?!”

“No, you can’t,” Vaughn told him seriously. “Anyway, I’m gonna crash her for a few days alright?”

“Sure, anytime… you know, you should really come back to the agency; it’s so boring without you there,” Weiss sighed.

“Sorry Eric, no can do. I’m done; can’t go back,” Vaughn said.

“Yeah, but what are ya gonna do? Aren’t you almost out of money?” Weiss asked.

“Not…exactly…,” Vaughn said slowly. No one, not even Sydney knew about Vaughn’s inheritance from the sale of his Uncle’s vineyard in France. Of course, Sydney didn’t know because she died before Vaughn actually inherited it, but that was beside the point. Vaughn did not really need to work ever again in his life, assuming he invested correctly. Not that he planned on being a sloth for the rest of his life; he didn’t, but it was nice to have the time off considering his non-vacation working style for the previous five years.



Chapter 12

In the next three weeks, Vaughn heard nothing from Sydney, not one thing. In that time he was practically beside himself with worry and concern for her welfare. He tried to distract himself by doing things he’d always wanted to but never had the time to complete. For instance, he started on the long list of books he wanted to read but never got the chance to. Of course, this only succeeded in depressing him further, because, apparently, he’d reached the point in his life where his once perfect eyesight was beginning to fail and the words on the page he was trying to read were blurred. He picked up a pair of reading glasses at a local drugstore and, when he found that they helped him read, became even bitterer, especially when Eric called him an old man.

After the disappointing reading plan, Michael moved on to looking at real estate. He decided that after months of being a pessimist, it really did not suit him. He was an optimist by nature and he needed to continue that trend. In his optimistic mind, he knew that someday (soon hopefully), Sydney and he would be reunited once more and they’d finally be able to live under one roof as husband and wife. The only problem was they actually needed a roof to live under, which was why he began searching for houses. The other problem he came across during his search was that he didn’t want to buy a house without Sydney’s approval, which meant he was stuck, although the looking process was entertaining.

Finally, three and a half weeks after he last saw Sydney, which also happened to be the day of their one month wedding anniversary, Sydney made contact. She sent a large envelope to her father’s house and, when Jack received it, he called Vaughn and told him to come over immediately. “I waited for you to open it,” Jack told him when he arrived.

Together, they opened the envelope and found a variety of contents inside. One group of papers clipped together was information on the Covenant, what they were doing, and what they had her as Julia Thorne doing for them. There was also a hand-written note from Sydney, saying that she missed them both, loved them, and wished she could see them. The final item in the package was a smaller envelope with Vaughn’s name on it. Vaughn opened it slowly and found an anniversary card inside. On the front of the card were the words “To my husband,” in pink scripty lettering. The inside had the words ‘happy anniversary’ printed, plain and simple, but Sydney had added her own message. The best month of my life, even if we’re not together. I love you, it read and she signed it simply your wife.

It took all of Vaughn’s self control not to shed a tear in front of the man who was technically his father-in-law. He missed her so much that it hurt. Laughing slightly as he put the card back in the envelope he looked up to Jack, “Funny…it’s hard to believe it’s real, especially since she’s not here with me.”

“She will be,” Jack told him in a hopeful tone. Vaughn gave him a half smile. “I’ll pass this on to the CIA,” Jack said, holding up the papers relating to the Covenant.

Vaughn nodded and turned to leave, but paused before he took a step. “Hey Jack, can I ask you something?” he asked. Jack nodded. “Well, I was just wondering…do you think Sydney’d like a house on the beach? You know, to live in…”

“Sydney always loved the beach… I think she would…why? Are you buying a house?” Jack asked.

“Thinkin’ about it, but I didn’t want to buy it without Syd’s approval,” Vaughn said with a slight laugh.

“Smart decision,” Jack told him with an almost smile. Vaughn laughed and nodded, before leaving Jack’s house.

Though Sydney’s card managed to lighten his spirits a little bit, Vaughn was still stuck in his Sydney-missing funk. Later that day, he was sitting on Weiss’s couch re-reading the card while tracing his finger tips over Sydney’s scrawly ‘your wife’ signature. In his minds eye, he could see her meticulously picking out the card. She probably stood in front of the card section at some drug store for twenty minutes, scrutinizing each one, scrunching up her nose at the ones she didn’t like, laughing at the ones she did. Finally, she’d decide on the perfect card, but then came the task of picking the envelope. She’d look at each one, making sure the edges weren’t crinkled and that, when it was sealed, it would form perfect right angles at the corners so that it was perfectly symmetrical. She’d then take the card home and carefully plan out what she was going to write and where before she’d pick out her favorite pen and scribble down her message. She’d read over it a few times before finally sealing it in the envelope and mailing it with a smile on her face.

Since Vaughn was trapped in his thoughts of Sydney, he failed to hear Eric arrive home until he was standing right behind him asking, “What’s that?!”

Vaughn nearly jumped twenty feet as he attempted to conceal the card from view. “Nothing, it’s nothing,” he said quickly.

Eric gave him a suspicious look. “It looked like a card…”

“It was a card… for my mother’s birthday,” Vaughn lied quickly.

“Wasn’t her birthday back in July…?” Eric asked suspiciously.

“Um… yes,” Vaughn said while cursing in his mind, “But I forgot to send her a card so I’m sending one now…”

“Whatever,” Eric rolled his eyes. “We’re going out to night – to that new bar slash club.”

“Eriiiiiiic,” Vaughn whined.

“Nope, no buts. You hardly ever leave that couch except to go visit Jack and that’s just freakin’ pathetic. You’re coming out with me even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming,” Eric told him firmly. Vaughn grumbled slightly, but didn’t protest anymore. Eric had been harping on him for the previous three weeks that he needed to ‘get out there’ and Vaughn saw no end to his persistence in the near future. If he went out with Eric that night, perhaps it would give him a few more weeks of peace before the pestering began once more.

~*~

Later that evening, Vaughn was sipping slowly on a Coke while sitting at the bar of the ‘fantastic’ new place Eric took him too. Looking around, it was obvious to Vaughn that ‘fantastic’ in Eric’s opinion vastly differed from Vaughn’s, but it was worth it if the outing got Eric off his back even for a little while. Vaughn stayed at the bar while Eric made his way around the room, flirting and getting shot down by woman after woman.

After about an hour of sitting, watching Eric and laughing to himself, a woman approached Vaughn. She sauntered over to him and plopped herself down in the seat beside him saying, “Hey,” in a sexy tone.

“Hi,” Vaughn said shortly, averting his eyes to the label on his Coke bottle.

“I’m Becky,” she said. “You were lookin’ pretty lonely over here so I thought I’d come keep you company.”

Vaughn sighed and looked over to the blue eyed, blonde woman speaking to him. He sorted through a number of polite declines to her advances in his mind, until finally he settled on one so perfect that it almost made him smile. “Thanks but… I’m married. My wife’s away on business and I just came here to keep my friend company.”

“Oh I’m sorry…enjoy your drink,” she said, flashing him a slight smile before leaving him be.

It only took three minutes for Eric to come over and hiss to him, “Married?! Married??!!? Are you sure you don’t need to go back and see Barnett again?” he asked sounding genuinely concerned.

“I’m fine Eric,” he said before sipping on his Coke. “It was just the first excuse I came up with… like I said, I don’t want dates thank you very much.”

“Fine,” Eric sighed, “but you really should talk to Barnett.”



Chapter 13

Another painful two weeks went by until finally Vaughn received contact from Sydney once more. Once again it was via a package sent to Jack’s address. That time though it was encrypted with a special encryption the two of them came up with during their honeymoon weekend. When Vaughn decrypted the message he saw that Sydney was asking to meet him at Santa Monica’s Huntley hotel in two days time. “She wants to meet?” Jack asked. “Is that safe?”

“I don’t know,” Vaughn sighed. “Maybe she has something to tell me she can’t send in a package.” Jack gave him a skeptical look. “What?” Vaughn asked.

“Nothing… I’m just hoping Sydney isn’t letting her desire to see you conflict with her priories of keeping herself safe from being caught,” Jack said. Vaughn shrugged slightly, being thankful that he hadn’t been having the same conversation with Weiss who would have turned Sydney’s desire into something very, very dirty. Luckily, such a comment was unlikely coming from Jack Bristow, especially when talking about his daughter.

“I’m sure Sydney took proper safety precautions,” Vaughn said. Despite the fact that he was fairly certain Sydney’s desire to have close contact with him was almost as high as his, he knew she wasn’t reckless, no matter how much her libido was influencing her. However, Vaughn did know that it was his libido keeping him from over thinking the safety situation, for if he had, he may have been a bit more hesitant of going down to Santa Monica.

~*~

Two days later, Vaughn arrived at the Huntley driving his new car. He decided that most likely he would not be returning to Europe, at least not permanently anyway. No matter how much he tried to leave, LA was his home and it was a home he was comfortable staying in especially since even though everything still reminded him of Sydney, those memoirs were happy to him once more.

He took the elevator up to the seventh floor, where Sydney’s room was located. He had only knocked once on the door when it opened and he was roughly yanked inside by a hand grabbing at part of his jacket. He didn’t even have a chance to see Sydney before her lips were on him. She pinned him up against the wall, her hands immediately traveling to his belt buckle.

“Jesus Syd… it’s nice to see you too,” Vaughn laughed through their kisses.

“Uh huh,” she mumbled before guiding him back to the bed in the room, still kissing him. She shoved him backwards and he landed with a soft thump and squeak from the mattress springs on the dark green bedspread. Sydney momentarily removed her lips from his so that she could untie his shoes and remove them along with his socks. It was only then that Vaughn was able to look at her properly.

“God Sydney what happened?” he gasped, sitting up. His shock stemmed from the fact that Sydney’s face bore a very battered appearance. Her left eye was black and there was a cut above it. In addition to that, her lip was split in two places.

“Nothing I’m fine,” she said while pulling her shirt up over her head. This, of course, did not coincide with her ‘I’m fine’ comment, being that it revealed a great deal more bruising on her almost disturbingly thin body.

“Sydney,” Vaughn sighed heavily as he gently rested his hands on her side, rubbing one of her bruises. “What happened to you?”

“Nothing,” she repeated defiantly as her hands traveled to the buttons on his shirt. He took her hands in his and gave her a serious and very concerned look. Tears pooled in her eyes and she swallowed hard a few times, obviously trying to compose herself. “I don’t want to talk about it now, okay? I just… I just want my husband to make love to me, okay?” she asked him softly. Unable to argue with the pain in her voice, Vaughn simply nodded and pulled her down into his arms.

~*~

When Vaughn felt as though they’d been silent long enough, holding each other tightly under their messy sheets, he tried to entice Sydney to tell him what happened once more. “It’s nothing,” she repeated to him. “Just some stupid mission… a guard caught me… I’m fine,” she said. Though she may not have been ‘fine’ when she arrived in Santa Monica, she was definitely growing progressively more ‘fine’ because of the time she spent with him.

“Okay,” he sighed, kissing her temple lightly. “How long are we staying?” he asked, trying to gauge how much time they had to enjoy each other’s company before getting down to business.

“Overnight’s okay,” she told him. “I don’t really have a full time security detail anymore.”

“Good,” he said.

“Hey,” she said softly, for the first time noticing the silver chain around his neck. Tugging at it gently, she found that her engagement ring and wedding band were strung through it. She carefully unhooked the necklace clasp and slid off her two rings before putting them on her finger. “You look funny with a necklace on,” she said with a slight laugh.

“Thanks,” he rolled his eyes slightly at her. “I don’t usually wearing, but I wanted to bring your rings along with me and Weiss was keeping a close eye me so this was an easy way to sneak ‘em without risking loosing them,” he explained.

“How very thoughtful of you,” she smiled at him before giving him a quick kiss.

“Well I’m just a thoughtful guy,” he smiled proudly. “Oh, speaking of – thank you for the card, I loved it.”

“Oh,” she laughed softly. “Well I wanted to do something… and I almost didn’t send it because I had to go through my dad and all… I didn’t want him freaking out.”

“Nah he’s cool with me as his son-in-law,” Vaughn told her casually.

Sydney looked at him in shock. “You told him we’re married?!!?”

“Well… yeah. I kinda had to… besides, he would have killed me a dozen different ways before letting me come to meet you in a hotel in a different city unless he knew we were married,” Vaughn pointed out.

Sydney nodded slightly, unable to argue with that, knowing it to be true. “I still wish I could have been there when you told him… I mean, to stop him from killing you and all…”

“I managed to survive,” Vaughn smiled at her. “Besides it was actually really kinda nice… I mean, to start out I asked for his permission to marry you and – shockingly – he said yes immediately, starting that he didn’t want anyone else but me marrying you.”

“YOU’RE KIDDING!” Sydney gasped.

Vaughn shook his head, laughing slightly, “I told you we were like friends… and then, once I had his permission I told him we were already married and he got that “I’m gonna shoot you” look on his face before I explained to him that it was your idea,” Vaughn smiled. “Besides, he totally would have noticed me wearing my wedding ring.”

“You wear it all the time?” Sydney asked, slightly surprised. When Vaughn nodded she gasped, “Hasn’t anyone else noticed it?!”

“Well, I try to be careful about not showing off my left hand too much… but shockingly Weiss hasn’t noticed at all – and I live with him,” Vaughn laughed. Sydney rolled her eyes.

For the remainder of the evening, they didn’t talk about anything more work related. They simply became a normal married couple… or as normal as a married couple meeting secretly in a hotel could be. The next morning, though, Sydney brought up the reason why she’d called their meeting in person rather than sending information via her father.

“Vaughn the Covenant is setting up a North American cell in Washington DC… they want Sark and I to lead it,” Sydney told him.

“What?! That’s wonderful!... right?” he asked cautiously.

“It’s definitely not bad… I just… I dunno about it. I hate Sark,” she grimaced. “But I do need something from you.”

“Anything,” he smiled at her.

“I need you to go back to the CIA,” she told him. He immediately opened his mouth to protest, but she stopped him. “Vaughn, please. I know you don’t want to and I don’t want you to either – at least, not as a field agent, but the Covenant has a mole in the CIA. I need you to go back and try to find out who it is.”

“The Covenant has a mole in the CIA?” Vaughn questioned. That was the first time he’d heard such a thing.

Sydney nodded. “I’ve suspected it for quite some time, but I just received confirmation about it a week ago. Sark knows who it is, but they won’t let me meet the person or tell me their name. I need you to go and figure it out.”

“Sydney,” Vaughn began, but again she cut him off.

“Vaughn, seriously, I never ask you for anything – okay, I rarely ask you for stuff…but I’m asking for this now. I’m asking you as my husband to do this for me, your wife,” she told him with a pleading look.

Vaughn grumbled at her. She had to play the wife card, the one he couldn’t deny. “Fine, I’ll go back… but just as an analyst. I’ll do as much snooping as I can I promise.”

“Thank you,” she said, giving him a sweet kiss. Then with a frown she added, “You should go.”

“I know,” he sighed. “One thing though…,” he said. He reached for the pad of paper bearing the hotel’s logo on the end table beside their bed. On it, he jotted down an address before handing it to Sydney. “If you’re ever in the neighborhood, check it out.”

“Why…,” she asked suspiciously.

He winked at her. “Just check it out. I love you,” he told her.

“I love you,” she repeated as she removed her rings and handed them back to him. Then, with a kiss, they parted.



Chapter 14

“Any particular reason for you choosing now to return, Mr. Vaughn?” Kendall asked. Vaughn had lost is ‘Agent’ title along with his field rating and judging by Kendall’s tone of voice, he wasn’t exactly thrilled to have him back, at least not when he stayed behind a desk.

“Jack informed me of some new leads and I thought it might be time for me to return,” Vaughn told him.

“Really? Jack talked to you about his mysterious contact, did he?” Kendall raised an eyebrow so high that crinkles appeared all the way into his bald head.

“Just in passing,” Vaughn said casually.

“You wouldn’t happen to know who it is, would you?”

“The name is Hermès, isn’t it?” Vaughn said, playing innocent.

“Yes I was actually hoping for something a bit more specific than that actually,” Kendall said, obviously annoyed. Vaughn merely shrugged. “Very well Mr. Vaughn. Agent Weiss will show you to your new desk.”

Vaughn nodded and left Kendall’s office with Weiss close behind him. “Dude,” Weiss hissed in his ear once they were in the hallway. “You, Jack, and Hermès are up to something aren’t you?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Vaughn told him in a serious tone. As much as it pained him to keep his best friend in the dark, he was going to respect Sydney’s wishes and keep a tight lip regarding her identify and not-exactly-dead status.

“Come onnnnn,” Weiss whined. “I wanna know! Please?!”

Vaughn sighed. Once they were safely inside his new office, he quietly told Weiss as much as he thought he could. “There’s a Covenant mole inside the CIA…Jack thought I’d be helpful in identifying that person.”

“A mole inside this office?!” Weiss asked, slightly shocked.

“Apparently,” Vaughn said, rubbing his brow.

“Freaky… I wonder who it is…,” Weiss sighed, peering out the window in the door to Vaughn’s office. “What else did this Hermès person tell you?”

“Nothing S-…nothing-”

Weiss gasped. Vaughn shrank slightly, lowering his eyes to the floor realizing his slip. “You know who it is, don’t you? You’re lying to me about something.”

“No I’m not,” Vaughn mumbled quietly.

Weiss sighed in an obviously upset tone. “Look, I know you and Jack have freakishly bonded over this whole situation and that’s…nice in a weird way and all, but I cared about Sydney too, you know?”

“I know,” Vaughn said with a slightly guilty gulp. “It’s complicated Weiss.”

“Fine. I’ll be at my desk if you ever decide to let me in on your secret little club,” Weiss snapped in a hurt tone. Then, he left Vaughn’s office, slamming the door behind him.

Sighing and rubbing his brow some more, Vaughn made a mental note to find a better living arrangement quickly, considering Weiss most likely would no longer be appreciating his presence in his house.

~*~

For the next few weeks, Vaughn dutifully worked his job as the CIA’s newest analyst. Unfortunately, being the newbie meant he received the boring tasks that no one wanted, despite the fact that he actually had a ten year history with the organization. Due to his boring tasks, he quickly grew bored with his job, but he had to stick with it; Sydney needed him to.

After a month, no one was any closer to finding the mole in the CIA. It appeared that whoever it was kept a very low profile, being careful not to raise any suspicion around them. Discouraged, Jack and Vaughn pressed on, scrutinizing anyone they suspected in the least, and even those they didn’t. Still, they found nothing.

One night, almost six weeks since Sydney and Vaughn’s rendezvous in Santa Monica, Vaughn was eating dinner at Jack’s house when there was a knock at Jack’s front door. When Jack opened the door to find his daughter on his doorstep, he was shocked and outraged. “Sydney what on earth are you doing here?! Do you have any idea how dangerous and reckless this is! You could be putting your life in danger! All of our lives!” Jack exclaimed. Upon hearing the shouting, Vaughn walked into the hallway to investigate. His jaw crashed open at the sight of his wife.

“It’s nice to see you too Dad,” Sydney said with a slight sniff, obviously indicating the fact that she was near tears. Upon spotting Vaughn in the doorway, she walked quickly over to him and wrapped her arms around him.

Vaughn kissed her cheek gently before asking, “What are you doing here?”

“Sydney do you realize how dangerous this is?! Your flight was probably tracked and-”

“Dad, I drove here,” Sydney told him.

“From DC?!” both men asked in shock.

“No, from close by actually – there was a meet at the docks,” she explained. Then at her father’s grave expression she said, “Don’t worry Dad, I know no one followed me… but I couldn’t wait, this is too important.”

“What is?” Vaughn asked, keeping his arm around her shoulders, enjoying as much closeness as he could in close proximity to Sydney’s father.

“The Covenant is planning a raid on the LA branch of the CIA next week. Apparently they’ve got some intel from their mole that there’s an artifact or something there that they want, but the mole can’t get. Oh, by the way,” she sighed, opening up her cell phone and pushing a few buttons, “recognize him?” she asked them. Vaughn took a look at the photo on her phone’s screen before handing it to Jack. He did indeed recognize the man from the CIA offices, though he wasn’t very familiar with him.

“The mole?” Jack asked Sydney.

“Obviously,” she sighed. “Look the raid is going to take place at eleven PM next Thursday. I’m going to be there and I want out; I want you to extract me,” Sydney told them seriously.

Jack and Vaughn exchanged looks before Jack asked, “And how, exactly, do you propose we do that?”

Sydney shrugged slightly. “That’s why I’m here.”

“Well,” Vaughn began slowly, “the best way would obviously be to kill you.”

His comment elicited strange looks from Sydney and Jack. “Thank you Michael,” Jack said in an obviously unappreciative tone. “I do, however, have slight concern for you casual attitude towards killing your wife.”

Vaughn rolled his eyes. “I didn’t mean really kill her!”

“Thanks honey,” Sydney said with a slight smile.

“I’m serious,” Vaughn continued, ignoring her sarcasm, “if we make The Covenant think she died in the raid, she’s home free.”

“Wait a second, wait a second,” Jack stopped them. “I don’t understand something. The Covenant knows that Sydney isn’t really Julia… and they know she used to work at the LA branch, so why would they send her back there where someone could so easily recognize her.”

“Simple,” Sydney said with an almost proud smile. “I kept insisting that I go and when they said no, I’d question them and shout at them. Finally, they agreed, but told me I needed to stay in the van as their backup. I, of course, have no intensions of doing that.”

“Ah,” Jack nodded.

“Vaughn’s right though – killing me is the best option,” Sydney said.

“I’ll do it,” he said with a smile.

“Glad you’re so excited about this,” Sydney muttered to him. His answer came in the form of a gentle kiss to her forehead.

“Only one issue remains,” Jack told them. “Are we going to let the CIA know this is coming or not?”

“I’ll leave that up to you two,” Sydney said. “I need to go, but first I just need a second,” she said, pulling Vaughn into her father’s kitchen where they could talk more privately. “Vaughn,” she began, her voice trembling slightly. “I saw the house… is that…I mean, there’s a for sale sign out front…”

“All you have to do is say the word and I’ll make an offer,” he told her with a smile.

She shook her head gently for a moment before saying quietly, “I love the house…but its right on the beach and it’s so big… it must be so expensive.”

“Oh, right, I guess I should have mentioned that I recently inherited fifteen million dollars,” he told her with a cheeky grin.

“F-F-Fifteen mi-million?” Sydney stammered, grabbing onto the nearby counter for support. Vaughn nodded, grin never leaving his face. “Dear god did you rob a bank?!”

“No,” he laughed. “My mother had four siblings – three brothers and a sister. Her one brother married a woman whose family owned a vineyard. His wife died years ago and he passed around the same time you ‘died’ and since the only sibling he liked was my mother, he gave me all the proceeds from the sale of the vineyard.”

“Serious?!” she asked, still shocked. He nodded. “Oh my god,” she laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. “Fifteen million dollars?! That’s… so much money!”

“I know,” he laughed. “It’s a little overwhelming… but, like I said if you want that house its ours. OR, I could still buy us that island somewhere.”

She laughed softly. “Well, as much as I’d love our own island, I think we should stick with that house for now.”

“You got it,” he smiled before kissing her. Sydney gave Vaughn a tight hug before leaving the kitchen and giving her father a quick hug goodbye. Then, she slipped back out into the dark night and drove away.

“Fifteen million dollars?” Jack asked with a raised eyebrow once his daughter was gone.

Vaughn shrugged slightly. “It was a very successful vineyard.”

“Obviously,” Jack said.



Chapter 15

The next week was very tense for both Jack and Vaughn. Both of them were dreading the night of the Covenant raid on the CIA, which was drawing closer by the day. They had decided it was best to keep the details of the Covenant’s impending raid to themselves. Actually, Jack decided. He said that since they were raiding the office late at night, hardly anyone would be there, meaning casualties would be minimal. Also, their priority for that event was to extract Sydney and if they involved the CIA, her extraction might have been more difficult, in addition to potentially life endangering.

Vaughn agreed that Sydney was their priority, but suggested that they at least tip the CIA off about something, mostly because he feared Kendall’s backlash if he ever found out Vaughn and Jack knew about the raid before it happened. Agreeing to this point, Jack warned Kendall that the CIA should step up its security. The only other problem they had was finding an excuse to make themselves present at the eleven pm raid. In the end they decided that, unfortunately, both of them being there would draw too much attention. Kendall was already suspicious enough of them as it was, and he didn’t need any more of a reason to question them. Keeping this in mind, they agreed that only Vaughn would be at the CIA that night, but Jack would be close by just in case.

On Thursday, the night of the raid, Vaughn was beside himself was nerves. He could barely focus on the mounds of paper on his desk that he was supposed to be analyzing. Not only was he nervous thinking about how many things could go wrong with Sydney’s extraction, but he was nervous about Kendall finding him there at eleven and sending him home before the Covenant had a chance to raid the offices. Vaughn had made sure to ‘borrow’ a gun, though, even if he technically wasn’t allowed to have one. Luckily for him, he still had connections within the office who didn’t ask questions.

Starting at ten thirty, Vaughn stopped paying attention to his work and honed all his attention on listening for sounds of a potential break-in in the CIA offices. The half hour passed by painfully slowly, but, finally, at eleven, the power to their office building was cut, and pandemonium set in. Slowly, Vaughn emerged from his office, making sure to stay in the shadows. He didn’t want to get shot before he had a chance to get to Sydney. He knew she wouldn’t be in the first wave of Covenant operatives who filtered in the CIA office all dressed in black. He watched closely for her though, and finally, he saw her. She was easy to spot since he could recognize the way she so stealthily slipped around corners from a mile away. Only when he saw her did he emerge from the corner where he’d been hiding, gun at the ready.

He did not want to stray too far from his office, which was his designated safe zone, but yet, he needed to walk far enough away for Sydney to spot him. Finally, she did, or at least, he thought she did, because she began to approach slowly. When she reached him, she took him completely off guard by attempting to hit him in the head with a trashcan. Luckily, his reflexes were quick and he ducked, wondering what on earth she was doing. Just as soon as he stood up straight, Sydney took another swing at him, that time hitting him on the side of the head with the trashcan and sending him to the ground as he moaned, “Jesus Christ!”

He staggered to his feet only to be power kicked in the stomach by her. Moaning, he stood once more, thinking all the while that they were going to have a very serious talk about her spousal abuse when they got home. Seeing an opportunity and taking it (not wanting any more abuse), he said a silent prayer and fired a shot into Sydney’s abdomen, where he knew a bullet proof vest would be covering. Much to his utter horror, when Sydney landed on the ground a red trickle of liquid appeared out from underneath her shirt.

Panicking at the thought that he may have just killed his wife, he grabbed her arms and dragged her out of the war zone that formerly was the CIA main office. Once safely behind his locked office door, Vaughn threw himself down on the ground and began ripping at Sydney’s clothing. His hands covered in a thick, red, sticky substance, he fumbled with the snaps on her vest. When he’d finally exposed her skin, he found that while it was covered in the red substance, there was no visible hole, especially not one made from a bullet.

Confused, he looked at her, which was, in fact, a bullet proof vest. There, he saw the tiny silver fragment that was his bullet, safely lodged in a place where it could not harm her. Relieved, Vaughn lowered his lips to the flesh on her belly and pressed a soft kiss onto it. In doing this, he discovered that the red substance covering her and his hands was none other than ketchup. Laughing with relief he said, “Jesus Sydney you scared the hell outta me.”

She grunted and moaned. “Hurts,” she managed.

Vaughn leaned over and removed the mask from her face so that he could see her properly. “Yeah, I know I’ve been shot before too. I know the feeling. In fact, I really know it since I was just hit in the face with a garbage can and, oh yeah, kicked so hard I can barely stand up.”

With this, the corners of her mouth tugged upwards slightly, “Sorry. But I didn’t kick you that hard.”

“Yeah, suuuure,” he rolled his eyes at her. “Come on let’s get you cleaned up… honestly… ketchup…” he grumbled as he half dragged, half carried her behind his desk, where there was more room. Using a handful of tissues, he wiped the ketchup from her skin, though it was completely soaked through her vest and the other clothes she’d been wearing.

After a few minutes, Sydney came around and pulled off the top half of her clothes, leaving her sitting against the wall in just her bra (plus her pants and shoes, of course). “You think they’ll believe I’m dead?” she asked Vaughn softly.

“Dunno,” he sighed, pulling her into his arms. “At least we’re together though, right?”

“Definitely,” she sighed kissing his neck gently.

“Syd,” Michael groaned painfully. “Can’t do that… it’s been two months… and you’re in a bra…”

Sydney giggled softly. “That horny huh?”

“Puh-leeze like you’re not,” he rolled his eyes remembering their last encounter at that Santa Monica hotel. “And it’s not that I’m horny… I just happen to find my very, very sexy wife irresistible, especially when she’s wearing black lace.”

“I though you’d like this,” she smiled at him. Before they could continue with their tender moment of peace, though, someone rattled the handle on Vaughn’s office door. Sydney dove for the space under his desk while Vaughn readied his gun and crouched behind the desk to use it for protection. The protection was unnecessary, though, because when the door burst open, they found that it was only Weiss.

“Vaughn are you okay?! There’s blood out here!” Weiss said, panicked.

“I’m fine Eric,” Vaughn groaned as he poked his head out from behind the desk. “What are you doing here?”

“Heard about the ambush, came as fast as I could. Everyone’s gone though… place is shit… hey wait, what’s that?” Weiss asked, pointing to the floor in front of Vaughn’s desk where three manicured fingers were sticking out from underneath the desk. At Weiss’s mention, the fingers disappeared and he gasped, “Oh my god! You’re having sex with one of the attackers!”

“No I’m not you idiot,” Vaughn groaned at his friend’s absurdity.

Slowly, Sydney moved from her position under the desk and raised herself up enough so that her entire face was visible above the desk. “Hi Eric,” she said softly.

“HOLY SHIT!” Weiss shouted at the sight of his once dead friend. “Syd?! Holy shit Syd we thought you were dead! Dude you son of a bitch,” he said to Vaughn. “You’ve been keeping this from me! This is what you and Jack were up to!”

“More or less,” Vaughn admitted with a slight laugh.

“Sorry Eric, I made them keep it a secret,” Sydney told him.

“That’s okay I guess. Come on girl come give me some sugar!” Weiss encouraged with his arms outstretched.

“Well, um,” Sydney cringed, knowing her minimal attire. Luckily Vaughn, sensing this dilemma was already unbuttoning his light blue oxford shirt while Weiss gave him a strange look. Vaughn quickly untucked it before passing it over to Sydney, who quickly slipped it on as Weiss laughed.

“You guys are the best, you know that?” he laughed.

“We weren’t doing anything,” Sydney defended as she buttoned up Vaughn’s shirt before going over to hug her friend for the first time in over a year.

“Suuuuuure,” Weiss said in an obviously disbelieving tone.



Chapter 16

“So how long has this been going on? I mean… seriously, what’s the deal guys?” Weiss asked, after he let Sydney out of his embrace.

“Well, for starters you should know that Sydney is Hermès and Julia Thorne,” Vaughn began.

Weiss sighed, rolling his eyes slightly, “Well that explains a freakin’ lot!”

“Oh and also,” Sydney said, slipping her arm around Vaughn’s waist, “Vaughn and I are married.”

Weiss’s jaw crashed to the floor and he fell silent for a solid few minutes until finally Sydney asked if he was alright. “Fine,” he croaked. “How long?”

“In two days it’ll be three months,” Sydney smiled.

Weiss turned to Vaughn, still shocked. “So when you told that woman in the bar you were married…”

“…wasn’t a lie,” Vaughn smiled almost proudly.

“Wait – what woman in a bar?” Sydney asked.

“I’ll explain later – it was nothing,” he assured her due to her slightly concerned expression. “You know the funniest part? I’ve been wearing this all along,” Vaughn said, flashing his left, ring-clad finger to his friend in an almost amused way.

Eric looked slightly offended. “I saw that I just… well, I didn’t know what it was.

“Suuuuure,” Sydney and Vaughn said in unison. Eric muttered under his breath and glared at them.

“Why the hell are you people in here having a powwow when – Jesus Christ!” Director Kendall gasped at the sight of Sydney. “You,” he said in an almost menacing way after his shock wore off.

“It’s nice to see you too, Director Kendall,” Sydney smiled at him.

Kendall turned to Vaughn with his eyes narrowed. “I knew you and Jack were up to something – I knew it. You’re both in so much trouble… so much trouble – but we’ll deal with that later. Explain,” he said to Sydney.

Taking a deep breath, Sydney began her tale, explaining to Kendall a summarized version of everything that had happened in her year and two months away from everything she knew and loved. Her story was peppered with gasps and comments from Weiss, each of which earned him a scowl from Kendall.

Much to Vaughn’s displeasure, Sydney didn’t leave out the detail of their marriage. Kendall, who had never been exactly supportive of their relationship (though he was shockingly sympathetic after Sydney’s death), did not see this as a positive factor, however it was what it was, especially since their union was far from legal.

“So where, pray tell, is Jack?” Kendall asked when Sydney was finished with her story.

“Here,” Jack said from the doorway.

All four of the rooms occupants jumped slightly and Weiss hissed, “Dude, he’s like magic!”

“Over the years the lot of you have broken more rules than I can even count and yet, somehow, you always get away with it because no matter what you do, you always end up doing something to benefit the CIA. However, that is not the case this time,” Kendall said menacingly. “Your actions have resulted in the death of one of our agents, not to mention two others that were wounded, plus the theft of a very important document that is now in the hands of terrorists! I cannot see one reason why you all shouldn’t be escorted to Camp Harris immediately.”

With this shocking threat, all four of the accused began talking at once, trying to defend themselves. With a loud whistle, Kendall silenced them, ushering for Jack to take his turn at a defense. “The decision not to pass on the intel of the Covenant’s attack was my decision alone….and as for your precious lost artifact I thought that a reasonable exchange for my daughter’s extraction,” Jack told him.

“Yeah and I didn’t even know she was alive until ten minutes ago,” Weiss defended quietly.

“The problem is that you haven’t extracted her. The Covenant will know we have her, which means they know we know Sydney Bristow is alive and they might have a pretty good guess that she orchestrated this and thus has known all along that she’s not this Julia Thorne person so all you have succeeded in doing, Jack, is endangering your daughter’s life even more,” Kendall said.

“My life was in danger being with them and pretending to be on their side,” Sydney defended.

“But you were an asset there!” Kendall told her. “You should have come to the CIA and worked undercover as a double with-”

“May I remind you,” Sydney cut him off harshly, “that I’ve already lead the life of a double agent.”

“May I remind you Agent Bristow that your double agent life led to the take down of SD-6,” Kendall countered.

“I was working for a purpose then – to bring down Arvin Sloane.”

“What about bringing down the people who faked your death?” Kendall challenged her.

Sydney’s eyes narrowed and she practically breathed fire in Kendall’s direction. “I didn’t see that I had a choice then. I was lost then, still looking for purpose in my life… I didn’t know what to do so I just listed to those around me and did as they said but look where it got me? All it succeeded in doing was hurting those I loved, again… Now…now I finally have purpose in my life,” Sydney said, taking a step closer to Vaughn, “and I won’t give it up; I won’t.” Tears were brimming on the edge of her eyes, but she held them in firm as she stared Kendall down.

Kendall exhaled heavily as he folded his arms over his chest. For a solid few minutes he looked around the room at everyone who seemed to be intently staring at the floor, all except Sydney that was. “So what exactly do you propose we do, Agent Bristow?” Kendall asked her finally.

Sydney was silent for a moment before she too looked down at the floor and said, “I’ll have to get back to you on that one.” With her comment, Vaughn couldn’t help but let out a laugh, though he tried to keep it as quiet as possible.

“You guys are such freaks…,” Weiss muttered.

“Thank you, Agent Weiss,” Kendall sighed, “for saying that so I didn’t have to.”



Epilogue

“You, Sydney Anne Bristow-Vaughn, never cease to amaze me,” Michael Vaughn said to his wife when he set down the armload of boxes he was carrying.

“Why?” she laughed softly.

“Because you’re not sweating and it’s fifty billion degrees outside,” Vaughn groaned, rubbing his sweaty brow with a tissue from his pocket. They had just begun moving their belongings into their newly purchased beach oasis of a home, but Vaughn was already dripping wet. Then again, he had been the one to load their moving truck earlier that morning with his belongings from storage and Sydney’s things from Jack’s house.

“I guess I just don’t sweat,” she laughed.

“’cause you’re a freak!” Weiss chimed in, half panting as he carried a box into their house.

“Thanks Eric,” Sydney said in a sing-song voice.

“It’s true! Who else could walk right up to three Covenant leaders, unarmed and not wearing a bullet proof vest, argue with them for twenty minutes and then walk away, completely unscathed, and ready to live a normal life?!”

“That’s why she’s amazing,” Vaughn said, kissing her cheek with a loud smack.

“Eww you’re sweaty,” Sydney grimaced, pushing him away. He tried to hug her but she ran away squealing.

Weiss, of course, had been referring to the incident during which Sydney gained her freedom. After two months of living in hiding in a CIA safe house (without her husband, which, apparently, was Kendall’s punishment for Vaughn lying to him), Sydney had broken out and gone to the Covenant heads herself to barter her freedom. Naturally, this gave both Jack and Vaughn near strokes, especially since they didn’t find out until after the fact. Sydney never told anyone what tactics she had used to convince Sark, Cole and her technical aunt, Yelena Derevko to allow her to live a spy-free life, but she insisted that it was between her and them, even though Vaughn pestered her practically daily about it.

After Sydney was given her freedom, she began the painstaking task of proving to the world that she was, in fact, alive. While she was doing this, she and Vaughn were staying at Weiss’s. They had temporarily taken over his house as their own while he was on a deep cover assignment. They didn’t mind house sitting though, especially since they were waiting for the purchase of their own house to be finalized so that they could move in. They were finally moving in though on, ironically, their six month wedding anniversary.

“Um, excuse me but, what the hell are you doing?” Vaughn asked his wife. He still held a rather heavy box in his hand, but he was staring down at Sydney, who was relaxing, stretched full out on their brand new couch. To make her seem even more at ease, she was fanning herself with a book while sipping on a bottle of water.

“Relaxing,” she sighed happily.

“Uh huh, well, could you maybe do that a little later and help us with the boxes?” he asked, slightly annoyed at her flippant attitude.

“Well, actually, I’m feeling kinda nauseous right now,” she told him. “I think my morning sickness is setting in…”

“Oh well then you should – wait!” he stopped himself dead, her words registering in his mind. “Did you just stay morning sickness?”

Instead of answering verbally, she simply smiled and held up the book she was fanning herself with titled, What to Expect When You’re Expecting. “Holy shit,” Vaughn gasped, dropping the heavy box down to the ground, where it landed with a very loud noise. “REALLY?!”

“Really,” she laughed. “I mean… I know it’s really soon but-” she was cut off by Vaughn diving on top of her and kissing her all over.

“Holy Jesus guys get a room,” Weiss muttered as he walked past them holding another box. Sydney and Vaughn completely ignored him.

“It was that night in Eric’s back yard, wasn’t it?” Vaughn asked her softly. She nodded with a soft laugh. He kissed her before asking, “What was that? Six weeks ago?”

“Yep,” she smiled.

“Oh my god Syd I love you so much, so, so much,” he sighed before kissing her all over her lips, chin and cheeks.

“I love you too,” she giggled as he moved his kisses down to the area around her belly button.

“Guys – seriously – I’m right here. Please don’t have sex in front of me. I only like porn when I don’t know the people doing each other,” Eric said, sounding slightly ill.

“Eric we’re not having sex!” Sydney insisted.

“That’s right; we’re simply celebrating our baby,” Vaughn grinned.

“Baby?!” Eric asked excitedly. Vaughn and Sydney nodded. “SWEET! I’m gonna be an uncle!” he said excitedly with a little jump of joy.

“Aw he’s cute,” Sydney laughed softly.

“Yes but I fear him as the uncle of our unborn child,” Vaughn said in a very serious tone. Sydney grimaced slightly. “Eh, we just won’t leave him alone with the little guy.”

“What if it’s a girl?” Sydney asked.

Vaughn shook his head. “First one’s gonna be a boy so we can practice before we have a girl so that way she can be perfect.”

Sydney couldn’t help but laugh. “Glad you’ve got it all planned out there Vaughn.”

“Of course,” he smiled. “It’s all going to be perfect.”

“Perfect,” she agreed and she definitely believed it.

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