How to Play the Game

Author: Janet (SkyGirl5)

Genre: S/V

Summary: Sydney Bristow is being held captive by the covenant when she suddnely finds herself with a very interesting cellmate.

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

Almost half an hour passed with Sydney laying on Vaughn’s chest, her chin resting just below his collar bone as she stared up at him and he stared back at her. Suddenly, though her hazy and disjoined thoughts a horrifying revelation came through, causing her to gasp and sit up away from Vaughn, so that her back was to him. Vaughn sat up after her and rested a gentle hand on her shoulder asking, “What is it?”

“We… we can’t stay here; we have to separate,” she said sadly.

“What? Why?”

“Sloane,” she sighed, resting her head in her hand. “He… we can’t have anyone see us together or he’ll kill us both… damnit I hate him,” she groaned and lowered her head to her knees. “And when we get back to LA… we won’t be able to see each other,” she said, her voice choked with tears.

“Yes we will,” Vaughn assured her. “I’ll bribe Weiss with food and make him switch with me; I’ll be your new handler.”

Sydney laughed softly at the mental image of Vaughn bribing Eric Weiss with a hamburger before she turned to face him. “Well, we’d be able to talk to each other then but we still couldn’t see each other… I mean, a handler and asset together… that wouldn’t work… God, I hate Sloane,” Sydney groaned. “This is all his fault. He killed my fiancé, you know.”

Vaughn shook his head. “I didn’t know that,” he told her. All he had heard about her life story from Weiss was that the trigger to her finding out the truth about SD-6 had been the death of someone close to her, but he was unspecific as to who, exactly, that person was.

“Well he did,” Sydney told him. “It was… over two years ago now. It’s funny, though. I don’t think Danny and I would have gotten married anyway. When I told him the truth about being part of the CIA he freaked… I don’t know that he would have ever gotten over it…,” she sighed. Vaughn continued to stroke her shoulder gently, not knowing what else to say.

After only few minutes of sitting there in silence Sydney slid of the bed and began to dress. Once fully clothed, she turned to Vaughn with a heartbreakingly sad look on her face. “I don’t want to leave you,” she admitted quietly.

Vaughn reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her back onto the bed with him. After giving her a long kiss he said, “We’ll see each other in LA, I promise you.”

She nodded her head softly against his. She almost stood up off the bed, but she stopped herself and looked directly into Vaughn’s eyes before saying, “I love you. I-I…I wanted to say that I love you.”

A smile spread across Vaughn’s face. “I love you too.”

Sydney giggled softly before kissing him. “Now I really don’t wanna leave,” she groaned.

“I know,” he sighed, stroking her face. “Just think – the sooner you go the sooner you can shower.” Her face lit up at this comment and he laughed softly. He crawled to the other side of the bed. There, he lifted up a floorboard and from it pulled a sat phone, which he handed her.

Sydney took it and dialed the only number she could think of. “Dad it’s me…,” she said after he answered. As her lip began to tremble at the sound of her father’s relief, she sat down on the bed and Vaughn put his arm around her. “No, Dad, I’m okay… I’m on my way to Mexico City I’ll need – okay, thanks.”

Once she hung up, Sydney handed the phone back to Vaughn with a brief kiss. “I’m gonna get going…”

“Okay,” he nodded. “Take the gun with you.”

“Are you sure you won’t….,” she let her voice drift off when he pulled a gun from the floorboard where the sat phone had been. “Boy that’s just the floorboard of tricks isn’t it?” Sydney said with a soft laugh.

Vaughn nodded. “I’ll see you.”

“See you,” she repeated before disappearing out the door.

~*~

By the time Sydney arrived back in Los Angeles, she was utterly exhausted. She had slept a few hours on the plane, but that didn’t even come close to making up for the months she had spent with little to no sleep and a maximum stress level. In LA she was met by two CIA agents who would be escorting her to the CIA headquarters for her debriefing. Sydney put her foot down the moment she climbed into the back of their van. She told them there was no way she was going anywhere but home since she was in desperate need of a shower. Her escorts reluctantly agreed and twenty minutes later they pulled up in front of Sydney’s one story house, which she had never been happier to see.

Once inside she went straight to the bathroom, stripping off her filthy clothes on the way. In an ideal world she would have stayed in that shower for twenty-four hours to make sure every pore of her skin was perfectly scrubbed clean. However, knowing the agents were waiting for her made her speed up the process a bit, though she was by no means speedy.

Forty-five minutes later she emerged from her house dressed in the tightest business suit she owned, which was hanging off of her. She wasn’t sure how much weight she had lost, but she guessed around ten to fifteen pounds, mostly of muscle. As she stepped out onto her front porch the one agent accompanying her gave her an annoyed look. “What?!” Sydney asked in defense. “I’m a woman who hasn’t showered for over two months – cut me a break.”

The agent’s look of annoyance was replaced by one of fear from her menacing tone as he quickly walked to the black SUV they were traveling in and opened the door for Sydney. She ducked inside and they were on their way.

~*~

An hour and a half later, after a painful debrief during which she was forced to detail her torture and the time she spent with Vaughn, Sydney was finally released. The moment she walked out of the debrief room, though, she came face to face with her father, who was smiling at her, a rare occurrence for Jack Bristow. “Sydney,” he said, opening up his arms to her.

“Hey Dad,” she sighed, stepping forward and giving him a hug.

“How are you sweetheart?”

“I’m fine Dad,” she assured him. Then she sighed as she folded her arms over her chest. “It was Mom.”

A look of confusion crossed her father’s face. “I thought Sark was the one who…”

“He’s working with Mom, but she’s the one that let Vaughn and I go,” Sydney explained.

“Let you go…?” her father asked, sounding just as confused as she felt.

Sydney shrugged slightly. “I have no idea why, but Dad, what’s been going on around here? I mean, SD-6…”

“Sydney,” Jack began, placing one hand on each of his daughter’s shoulders. “SD-6 was taken down a month ago.”

“Really?!” she gasped, not sure whether she should be shocked or relieved. Her father nodded and explained to her how Sloane took a leave of absence, leaving him in charge. After that, everything fell into place.

“It’s over Sydney,” he told her with a soft smile. Sydney could only stare at him. She wasn’t even sure how to react; it hadn’t sunk in yet.

Luckily, she didn’t have to say anything, for at that moment footsteps could be heard approaching. When Sydney looked towards the sound, her jaw dropped open slightly. Vaughn was walking towards them, clean shaven, looking just as perfect as ever in a grey business suit with a grin spread across his face. “Vaughn,” Sydney exhaled as she walked quickly away from her father and into his open arms.

“Hey,” he sighed into her shoulder.

“Are you okay?” she asked, trying to sniff back the tears that had formed in her eyes.

“Fine. You?”

“Fine,” she said. She pulled back from their embrace enough to look at his face and into his eyes. She ran her fingertips gently across his clean-shaven jaw before kissing him, not even caring that her father was behind her or that the CIA surveillance cameras were watching them. Vaughn kissed her back until they heard someone clearing their throat in an annoyed manner behind them.

“Agent Vaughn, Agent Bristow will you please compose yourselves?” CIA Director Kendall said.

Sydney reluctantly pulled her lips away from Vaughn’s and turned around to face him, never faltering. “I have to go,” Vaughn said quietly in her ear before heading into the debrief room she had vacated only moments earlier.

“Miss Bristow would you like to-”

“No,” Sydney cut Kendall off firmly. He gave her a look of slight shock. “I’m going home and I’m getting some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said to him. Then, after waving goodbye to her father, she left, smile growing across her face when she realized that the demise of SD-6 meant that she and Vaughn could see each other whenever they wished.



Chapter 12

When Sydney finally arrived home, the first thing she did was order pizza and Chinese food, the two things (at least eating wise) she had missed during, what turned out to be, almost three months away from home. While she waited for her meal to be delivered she got to work on removing the inch of dust that had built up on seemingly every square inch of her house during her absence. She took a brief break to devour half the pizza and a carton of Chinese before continuing on her cleaning task.

Finally, by seven pm, she decided it was time to give up and go to bed considering that by that point she had been up for nearly forty-eight hours with very minimal amounts of sleep. After showering again and brushing her teeth another five times (she couldn’t quite shake the gross feeling of not having brushed teeth since they hadn’t been brushed in so long), she finally slipped under the covers of her bed.

Though she was tired, she could not fall asleep. She used every trick she could think of: reviewing boring meetings in her head, counting, deep breathing and meditation, yet nothing worked. She changed positions, moving from the bed to the couch, to see if maybe that would induce sleep, but it was no use. After laying on the couch, flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling for over an hour, the answer to her insomnia came to her. She couldn’t sleep because she couldn’t relax; something was missing or rather, someone.

Determined to get rest, she reached for her phone. After a brief information seeking conversation, she grabbed her keys and got into her car, still clad in her pajamas. Surprisingly, his house was only a ten minute drive away. They had lived so close to each other for so long without even knowing the other existed.

When she pulled in his driveway and saw that his house was completely dark, she felt slightly guilty about randomly showing up on his doorstep at midnight. Instead of going right to the door, she got out her cell phone and called him, figuring that would scare him a bit less than some crazed person ringing his doorbell at midnight. It rang three times before he answered in a groggy voice. “Vaughn… it’s me – Sydney.”

“Syd…? Whatimsit?” he mumbled through a yawn.

“After midnight. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you… I’m in your driveway…I was just-”

“Hold on,” he said. The phone went dead just as Sydney could see lights going on inside the house. She climbed out of her car and walked up to his front door, which was opening just as she reached it.

“Hi,” she said in a quiet, sheepish voice as she stepped inside. He yawned once more and scratched his head while squinting in the bright light of his hallway, which wouldn’t have been all that bright, except he had just woken up. “I’m sorry,” Sydney apologized once more. “I’m a bit of an insomniac and I….I wanted to see you and-”

“You wanna stay?” he offered, figuring that was what she was hinting at.

“Yes please,” she gave him a soft smile. He took her hand and switched off the light beside them. Then he made his way back towards his bedroom and switched on the light there briefly so Sydney could find her way to the free side of the bed. “Thank you,” she sighed once Vaughn had slipped in beside her. He pressed a gentle kiss onto her forehead and put his arm around her. Sydney snuggled up to his chest and was asleep almost immediately.

~*~

The following morning when Vaughn awoke he noticed that the figure beside him was shaking ever so gently. Turning his head to the side he saw that Sydney’s face was completely buried down into her pillow and he knew from her half choked, half sniffing sounds that she was crying. “Syd,” he said softly as he rested his hand on her back. He rubbed in between her shoulders gently until she turned her head to face him. “What’s wrong?” he asked. She shook it off but he gave her an insisting look.

She lowered her eyes away from him, refusing to meet his concerned stare as she mumbled, “I’m just… scared.”

“Scared? Why?”

Slowly, she raised her eyes back up to his. “Scared because…I’ve never needed anyone before…”

Vaughn sighed and leaned close to her, kissing her forehead gently and giving her a hug. “It’s okay to need someone.”

“I know but…,” she paused and rubbed her eyes with one of her hands. “For me…I don’t know… my dad was never around and all I had was me but now… now I couldn’t even sleep without you beside me and it’s not that I don’t love you, because I do, I do love you I just… I’m scared because I love you… I’m sorry, I sound insane,” she sighed and buried her face down into her pillow once more.

“You don’t sound insane,” Vaughn assured her. “I’m a little scared too. Loving someone is scary but it’s also really, really good.”

She pushed herself up off the bed so that she was leaning on her elbows as she smiled down at him. “It is really good. You know what else is good? Sleeping in a bed for the first time in, like, three months.”

Vaughn laughed and nodded. “Definitely very good. In fact,” he sighed and pulled her back down onto the bed, “we should never leave.”

When her head found that perfect spot in the crook of his neck, she let out a contented sigh. “You’re right, we shouldn’t… except I kinda want a shower…”

Vaughn laughed. “And how many have you taken?”

“Two…but I brushed my teeth about seven times.”

“Freak… HEY!” he whined when she pinched his side.

“Sorry,” she giggled. “Hey Vaughn?”

“Hmm?”

“Can we go out on a date tonight?” she asked.

He smiled at her. “Absolutely. What do you want to do? Your choice.”

“Just dinner but something somewhat fancy… is that okay?”

He nodded. “Sounds like the perfect first date for us.”

She grinned and kissed him sweetly. Then, they parted ways, promising to see each other at work shortly.



Chapter 13

“Vaughn, buddy, way to like, call me and let me know you were, you know, alive,” Eric Weiss greeted his friend with a less than appreciative tone when he spotted Vaughn walking into the CIA main operations center.

Vaughn rolled his eyes slightly and pulled Weiss into a brief, manly hug. “I’m sorry but I felt sleeping for the first time in three months took a bit higher priority over you.”

“I’m so offended by that,” Weiss said seriously, though he was obviously joking. “Soooooo word on the street is that yesterday Kendall caught you and Sydney Bristow in a hot-and-heavy lip lock,” Weiss said with a grin. Vaughn’s face turned a soft shade of pink as he looked towards the floor, evading his friend’s eye. “DUDE!”

“Shut up Weiss; it wasn’t that big of a deal,” Vaughn said casually.

“Wait, for real he caught you?!” Weiss laughed. Vaughn nodded sheepishly. “That’s awesome. I’m sorry I missed it. I gotta say, though, I was really worried about Sydney and I’m glad she was in such capable hands,” he said, giving his friend’s shoulder a slight squeeze.

“Thanks,” Vaughn smiled at him.

“So you and Sydney huh?” Weiss grinned, obviously looking for Vaughn to spill every detail there was.

“Yeah me and Syd… I dunno Weiss…She’s exactly like you said she was and just so much more. I mean, we were trapped in this little cell together and we were laughing – laughing, really, really laughing but we were being held captive…,” Vaughn laughed slightly at the ridiculousness of the situation. “And even when she’s being tortured she’s… she keeps her cool and she mocks the people trying to get at her… it’s… amazing…,” he sighed.

“Whoa, Vaughn, buddy – you sound like you’re about to go pick out a ring at any moment,” Weiss said in disbelief.

Vaughn shrugged slightly. “I’m in love with her Eric. I mean, I know it’s only been three months since we’ve met and in no way has it been traditional but… well, you know her so…,” he shrugged once more.

“Yeah I know her and Bristow’s a great woman. I guess… yeah, I can see you two together. I approve,” Eric smiled.

“Thanks,” Vaughn laughed.

“Soooo have you two…,” Eric let his voice drift off with a suggestive eyebrow raise. Vaughn shook his head and walked away towards his desk. His refusal, of course, gave Eric conformation that they had, in fact, done what he was questioning. “Dude, you’re nailing my asset – I should totally kick your ass for this,” Eric laughed.

“Keep your voice down a bit, wouldya?!” Michael hissed. “It’s not like we’re just screwing around – this is serious. Our first date is tonight and I have to find the perfect restaurant.”

“Oh! You guys should go to this new restaurant that opened up last month. Sea… something or other I forget, but it’s got great steaks and sea food. I’ve been there twice already,” Eric told him.

“Eric, I don’t want Sydney and my first date to be at a place where half the restaurant population is wearing those little plastic bibs as they slurp their lobster,” Vaughn told him very seriously. Eric grumbled slightly and walked away.

After fifteen minutes of searching the internet, Vaughn finally found the perfect restaurant and called them up to make a six thirty reservation. Just as he hung up the phone, he saw Sydney approaching. “Hey,” he smiled, stood and walked over to greet her with a hug. “Mm you smell good.”

“Thanks,” she laughed. “So do you – much better than that gross smell you’ve had for three months,” she told him. He gaped at her in horror and she laughed louder, “Kidding.”

“SYDNEY! You didn’t come and hug me first?! I’m insulted!” Eric exclaimed as he approached them. Sydney laughed and turned to hug her handler-slash-friend. “How’ve you been? I hear you had someone to take care of you,” Eric said, nodding briefly towards Vaughn.

Sydney looked over to Vaughn and smiled; he smiled back at her. Then, Sydney turned back to Eric saying, “Yeah, I did.”

“So you guys met in captivity huh?” Eric smiled.

Vaughn shook his head with a laugh. “Only you could make it sound like we were pandas in a zoo, Eric.” Sydney laughed loudly at this then quickly shot her hand to her mouth to stifle her outburst.

Eric gave him a look. “You know what I meant.”

They chatted for a few more minutes about their experience ‘in captivity’ until Kendall approached them and instructed both Sydney and Vaughn that they needed to meet with the CIA therapist, Barnett, as part of their debrief. They bid goodbye to Eric before walking off in the direction of Barnett’s office. “She’s going to make us give her every last gory detail of our capture, isn’t she?” Sydney sighed as they walked.

“Probably,” Vaughn sighed in return. “But we should probably leave out the time we almost-”

“Vaughn,” Sydney cut him off with a laugh and a slight jab of her elbow.

“I told you to leave that part out,” he grinned. She rolled her eyes at him.

When they arrived at Barnett’s office, Vaughn opened the door for Sydney and she stepped inside, greeting the doctor with a warm handshake before Vaughn did the same. “It’s nice to see you two are back and doing well,” Barnett said to them as they all took seats, Sydney and Vaughn side by side on the couch and Barnett in a chair across from them.

They spoke for half an hour about their experiences during capture, talking about their lack of feedings, being beaten and, of course, Vaughn’s electroshock. “Oh, speaking of,” Vaughn turned to Sydney when they were on that topic. “Where did you send them?”

“Sloane’s house,” Sydney said with a proud smile. “I’m sure there were plenty of interesting things in his basement they could find.” At this, both Vaughn and Barnett laughed.

“One last thing,” Barnett said at the conclusion of their hour-long session. “Director Kendall wanted me to remind you two about the agency’s strict no fraternizing between agents policy,” she said, eyeing them suspiciously.

While Vaughn shrank slightly, Sydney maintained her cool. “Well, you can inform Director Kendall that will not be a problem because as soon as everything with SD-6 is wrapped up I will no longer be an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency,” Sydney informed her.

“Really?!” Vaughn and Barnett asked in unison, both sounding equally shocked.

Sydney nodded. “Ask Agent Weiss. I was clear with him from the start. As soon as SD-6 was gone, I was done. I was programmed to be in this life and I don’t need to stay in it.”

“Wait – programmed?!” Vaughn asked slightly horrified.

“I’ll explain later,” Sydney told him quietly.

“Well then, Agent Bristow, I’m sure you and I will discuss this at our next session. Wednesday at one,” Barnett told her. Sydney nodded in confirmation before standing and walking from the room.

“PROGRAMMED?!” Vaughn hissed as he followed her. “Who the hell programmed you to be a spy?”

Sydney gave him an almost sad look as she sighed, “You wanna go get some coffee?”

Vaughn nodded, hoping that their coffee came with an explanation on the side.



Chapter 14

“Wait…seriously?!” was Vaughn’s response after Sydney had roughly summarized for him Project Christmas and all that it entailed. Sydney nodded solemnly. “Wow…,” Vaughn exhaled. From the little he already knew about Jack Bristow, this didn’t surprise him all that much, what did surprise him, though, was the thought that crossed into his mind next.

“What?” Sydney asked when she saw Vaughn’s expression turn from shock to one of being perplexed.

“Well… it’s just… my father and your father knew each other back in the day, right? So what if…”

“…he programmed you too,” Sydney finished his thought for him. Vaughn nodded. Sydney sighed and looked down to her empty coffee cup. She had been so distracted with her father’s betrayal of her that she failed to factor other children who may have bee programmed into the equation. “I don’t know... I mean, he may have but-”

“Never mind,” Vaughn cut her off. “I think I’m better off not knowing.” Sydney nodded slowly; some days she thought the exact same thing. “Should we get back to work now?”

“Well, you probably should; I think I’ve wracked up enough brownie points that I could stay away for a while longer,” Sydney smiled. Vaughn laughed softly as he stood and threw his empty cup away in a nearby trash can. Sydney did the same and then slipped her hand into his as they walked back to CIA headquarters. “You know, it’s really nice being able to walk in the front door instead of having to sneak in covertly,” Sydney sighed.

“I imagine so,” Vaughn laughed. Once inside they parted ways; Vaughn needed to work on his debrief report and Sydney was going to go and visit two of her SD-6 colleagues, who had been recruited by the CIA and were now working there.

~*~

Later that afternoon, Sydney was grabbing her third cup of coffee for the day when she passed Weiss talking to another man she’d never met. Weiss stopped her and introduced him as Steven Brown. “It’s great to finally meet you. I’d shake your hand but,” Steven laughed and nodded towards his right arm that was in a sling, tightly wrapped to his body.

“It’s fine. What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?” Sydney asked him.

“Shot in the back, dislocated shoulder, broken ribs – what didn’t happen really,” he laughed slightly. “If Vaughn hadn’t of gotten me outta there I … I don’t think I’d be standing here right now.”

“Wait, Vaughn?” Sydney questioned.

Eric fielded that explanation. “Yeah, Steve was Vaughn’s partner. He was captured and then when Vaughn went back to get him, he traded places with Steve so Steve could get outta there.”

“Yeah,” Steve said with a laugh, “that crazy bastard.”

“Yeah… crazy…,” Sydney sighed. Crazy, sure, but amazing, definitely. After saying goodbye to Eric and Steve, Sydney walked off in the direction of the main office to find Vaughn. She saw him sitting at his desk, his brow wrinkled perfectly, with his chin resting atop his right fist and his left hand scribbling something down on a form in front of him.

Sydney walked up behind him and combed her fingers gently through his hair. At her touch, he dropped his pen immediately and looked up at her with a smile. Before he could speak, though, she lowered her head down to his and gave him a sweet kiss. “Well hello to you too,” he laughed softly. She sat on his desk in front of him and he rested his hands on her knees. “What was that for?”

She shrugged casually. “Nothin’ just for being you – amazing, wonderful you,” she told him.

“Well I’m not going to complain about that,” he chuckled.

“We still on for tonight?”

Vaughn nodded his head. “I’m picking you up at ten after six… except I don’t know where you live….”

Sydney picked up the pen he had just been using as well as a scrap of paper and jotted down her address before handing it to him. “Wow, close by,” Vaughn commented.

“Mmhmm,” Sydney sighed. Then, she kissed Vaughn’s forehead before walking back to her temporary desk to work.

~*~

At six ten exactly, Vaughn walked up the front walk to Sydney’s house armed with a bouquet of a dozen roses. He adjusted his jacket before pressing the doorbell. A moment later, Sydney opened the door wearing a form fitting black dress and a huge dimpled smile. “Hey,” she sighed.

“You look amazing,” he told her, stepping inside. He brushed her cheek with his lips softly before handing her the roses.

“Thanks and you don’t look so bad your self,” she told him with a slight giggle. After putting the flowers she received in a vase, Sydney followed Vaughn out to his car and smiled at him when he opened the door for her; she loved subtle chivalrous gestures like that.

During their drive, Sydney noticed from the corner of her eye that Michael was constantly looking over and smiling at her. After the sixth time he did it, she looked over to him and met his gaze with a laugh. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Nothing… I’m just… surprised you’re there. I mean, not surprised but…I don’t know the word… something that we’re here instead of back in that cell,” he told her.

Sydney nodded; she knew what he meant even without his missing adjective for she was feeling the same way: shocked and in disbelief, yet indescribably happy at the same time.

Their date at the restaurant was flawless. The wine was perfect, so was the music. Their meals were delicious, beyond delicious in fact, since they were still in their ‘oh thank god, real food’ phase of the return to the non-captivity world. More than that, though, they meshed together perfectly in the date atmosphere, laughing softly, sharing soft smiles and warm conversation as they ate. When it was over and they were returning to Sydney’s house, she was convinced that she loved him even more, if that was even possible.

“So…,” Vaughn began as they walked up to her front door, his hand gently resting on the small of her back, guiding her.

She stopped a few feet before her door, turned, and smiled at him. “You know Vaughn, being the good-natured, wholesome person I am I would never consider inviting a man inside on the first date… however,” she added at the slightly upset look on his face, “I’m not normally in love with the men I go on a first date with.”

He grinned at her. “Does that mean I’ll be an exception to your rule?”

“It does indeed,” she told him with a soft laugh. She unlocked her front door and pulled him inside, flicking on a nearby light switch in the process. “Would you like a tour?” she offered. He nodded. “Well, it’s nothing really special… kitchen, sitting area, bathroom, two bedrooms, but one’s completely empty.”

“TV room?” Vaughn asked, noting that a TV was absent in the room she had labeled as the sitting area.

“I don’t have a TV,” Sydney said casually. Vaughn’s jaw crashed open and he looked at her as though she had just informed him that she was missing a leg. “What?!” she laughed at his expression.

“How can you not have a TV?!” he asked in utter disbelief. “That’s like… not having food!”

“Funny…, that’s exactly what Eric said when he found out,” she told him.

Vaughn shook his head at her, clicking his tongue in disapproval. “No TV… no movies I think you’re just too much of a freak for me to date.”

“Vaughn!” she half gasped, half laughed in offense. “Are you really going to break up with me because I don’t have a TV?”

“Depends,” he said softly, moving his hands to her waist, eliciting a soft moan from her. “What’s your reason for the lack of such a precious piece of electronics?”

“Well, I was busy… writing my thesis…spying stuff… had one… broke…no new one…,” she said in between sighs as Vaughn rubbed his hands up her back and then danced his fingertips across her bare arms and then up to her shoulders, across her neck and finally combing them through her hair.

“Sounds like a good enough reason to me,” he whispered, his lips nearly touching hers. With a soft ‘mm’ sound, Sydney leaned in and pressed their lips together, anxious to see what they’d be like together when they were both clean, rested and not fleeing for their lives.



Chapter 15

A mere seven minutes after Sydney and Vaughn had crashed into the sheets of her bed, their activities were interrupted by something rather unfortunate: the slamming of Sydney’s front door and her father shouting out her name.

“OH god!” Sydney gasped in a hushed voice. She squirmed her way out from underneath a rather pale-looking Vaughn and grabbed her robe, which was draped across the back of a nearby chair. She threw it on inside out in her flustered state and struggled to put it on properly before flying out of her bedroom. “Dad, D-dad what are you doing here?” she asked, trying to remain cool but failing miserably.

“Well, we haven’t spoken much since you’ve been back and I was just wondering if you were alright,” Jack said in a somewhat awkward way. “Is this a bad time? Do you have company? Because there’s a car in front of your house, but I wasn’t sure if it belonged to your neighbors.

“Um… well…,” Sydney hedged. Luckily, Vaughn was able to think on his feet a bit quicker than Sydney, at least in that moment. After putting his pants and dress shirt back on he went from her bedroom through her bathroom and then cautiously stepped out into the hall beside Sydney. In his mind, he thought that would have been better than coming out of her bedroom because coming out of the bathroom was definitely a legitimate point of exit, had Sydney not been in a robe and blushing furiously, of course.

At the sight of Vaughn emerging from the bathroom staring intently down at the floor, Jack stiffened and cleared his throat. “Well… I’ll see you tomorrow then Sydney. Goodbye Agent Vaughn,” he said before turning and walking back towards the front door. It was only when the door slammed shut behind him that Sydney and Vaughn exhaled the breaths they had been holding in.

“That was bad,” Sydney groaned.

“Really? You think he suspected?” Vaughn asked, trying to maintain his casual exterior.

Sydney gave him a ‘duh’ look as she listed the things wrong with the picture her father had just seen, “You’re barefoot, your shirt buttons are buttoned incorrectly and I’m completely naked!”

“Oh… right… is he going to kill me now?” Vaughn asked, slightly horrified.

“I dunno…he’s never caught me this close to, you know, doing it before,” she said with a slight cringe. Vaughn cringed as well. “Oh well, we’ll figure it out tomorrow,” she said with a slight shrug. Then, she walked back into her bedroom, untying her robe on the way. Vaughn stood frozen in the hallway, fearing the many ways that Jack Bristow could kill him and then make it look like an accident until Sydney called out his name in a sing-song voice.

“I’m commin’, I’m commin’…”

~*~

The following morning when Sydney woke up she found, much to her sadness, that her bed was empty. She slid from bed with a groan and pulled on her robe before padding out into the hallway. She heard a sizzle and hiss coming from her kitchen and, when she went to investigate, found Vaughn standing at the stove with a skillet and spatula clad only in boxers. “Whatcha doin’?” Sydney asked through a yawn.

“Ohh did I wake you?” he asked, slight disappointment evident in his voice. “I wanted to surprise you with breakfast in bed.”

“Shut up you were not,” Sydney said with a soft giggle at his adorableness.

“Was too,” he retorted with a grin.

“Well aren’t you just perfect?

“I do try,” he laughed. Then, he gestured for her to sit at the table.

They ate the eggs Vaughn had made in silence for a few minutes before Sydney let out a groan, “We have to go to work soon, don’t we?”

“Unfortunately,” Vaughn sighed. “Oh, but speaking of - when are you quitting? I mean, you are quitting, right?”

Sydney nodded. “I’m going to put the degree I slaved over for years to good use. Kendall says all the SD-6 crap should be finished by the end of next week and, after that, I’m out.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Vaughn said with a slight sigh. Sydney gave him a curious look, wondering what exactly he meant by that. “Oh, I was just looking forward to having you as my new partner,” he smiled at her.

“Oh,” she laughed softly. “You don’t want me as a partner.”

“Don’t say that. How could that possibly be true?”

“Because I’m a bad partner! Well, not a bad partner, but I’m not good at having partners in general. I tend to be controlling.”

“REALLY?!” Vaughn gasped in an overly fake voice. “I never would have guessed that.”

“Shutup,” Sydney muttered, elbowing him. “You and I might have made a good team though….but I have to quit now or something else will come up and then I’ll just never quit and… I don’t want that,” she told him honestly.

Vaughn nodded, understanding what she meant. Sometimes, he didn’t see an end in sight either. “Well, I’ll definitely miss seeing your beautiful face around the office and I know Weiss will be lost without you.”

Sydney couldn’t help but laugh at this. “Yeah, right. He’s probably thrilled to no longer have me as the thorny asset in his side.”

“Well…,” Vaughn sighed. It was difficult to argue with that point for as much as Eric adored Sydney, the person, Sydney, the agent, annoyed the hell out of him sometimes. “We’re still going to miss you around the office.”

Sydney leaned over and kissed him before carrying both their plates to the sink. “I’ll try to visit if Kendall let’s me.”

“He should,” Vaughn laughed. “For the praise your SD-6 work got him you should get a lifetime pass.”

Sydney laughed slightly. “Nah, it wasn’t that great. Speaking of, whatever happened to Sloane? Do you know?”

“Still on the loose last I heard,” Vaughn told her.

“NOOOOO NONONONO!!” Sydney exclaimed. Vaughn gave her a confused look. “Don’t tell me thaaaaaaaat,” she whined. “That’ll make me want to stay!”

“Oh okay… Sloane’s six feet under,” he told her very seriously. Sydney couldn’t help but laugh softly at his tone. Vaughn got off of his chair, walked over and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her head gently. “I’ll get him for ya; I promise.”

“Thanks,” she sighed into his chest.



Chapter 16

“Sydney! Sydney!” her father shouted to her. Groaning, Sydney stopped her power walking and turned to face him very slowly. She had been trying to slip into the CIA main room without him noticing her in an attempt to avoid a painfully awkward conversation, but she had been unsuccessful. “Sydney I was wondering if I could have a word?” her father asked. Sydney nodded, trying her best to hide the grimace from appearing across her face. Talking to her father under normal situations had enough painful and awkward tendencies. Throw a post-boyfriend catching speech potential in there and it was just down right dreadful.

Sydney followed her father into a secluded corner of the CIA ops center before asking, “What’s up Dad?” trying her best to remain upbeat.

“I’m concerned for you, that’s all Sydney,” her father said.

“Dad,” Sydney sighed, lowering her eyes to the floor as she folded her arms tightly over her chest. “I’m fine, really. If this is about last night…well, you don’t have to worry.”

“You and Agent Vaughn hardly know each other Sydney I’m just-”

“But Dad, we do know each other,” Sydney insisted. “We spent almost three months locked in a tiny cell together with nothing to do but get to know each other. I know him and I love him,” she told him. With this comment, her father looked at her, slightly shocked. “I love him and things between us are serious, not just some fling.”

Jack nodded; there wasn’t much he could say in response to that. His concern lied more in the fact that Sydney and Vaughn were using their ‘thank god we’re free!’ exuberance to form what would eventually become a short lived fling, but if they were in love…well, that was definitely more than a fling. “One more thing,” Jack stopped Sydney before she walked away. “You said your mother let you and Vaughn go… if you ever wanted to, you know, talk about it.”

“Thanks, but no thanks, Dad,” Sydney told him. “In a week I’m leaving the CIA and, if you don’t mind, I’d rather go back to thinking that she’s been dead all along.”

“But Sydney-”

“No buts Dad,” she said, then she walked away.

~*~

The next week passed at lightening speed for Sydney and before she knew it, Marshall, a former colleague from SD-6 who had moved to the CIA after the destruction of SD-6, was throwing her a goodbye party in the ops center. In that week, Sydney and Vaughn hadn’t spent one night apart, alternating between his house and hers. They ate meals together regularly and found that, much to their happiness, phasing from captured life to real life together was just as perfect as they had hoped.

For Sydney, the goodbye party was a bittersweet event. On one hand, she was ready to try something different with her life; ready to never face torture, gunfire or anything more life threatening than driving the 405 every day. Yet, on the other hand, she wondered what exactly she was going to do with herself not being a CIA agent. It had been her every day life for, what felt like forever, but was really eight years of her life. She decided though that a bit of uncertainty was a worthwhile exchange for never having to stare down the barrel of a gun again.

“Hey Vaughn?” Sydney asked as they were crawling into bed at her house that evening. He grunted at her. “Well, I was wondering. You remember back when we were in the cell?” He grunted again. “What made you ask me about the eagle thing? I mean, I could have been from any agency…or anywhere…”

“I dunno,” Vaughn said with a sigh as he looked over to her. “I just… I was sitting there, thinking about that phrase my father had told me and I had a feeling in my gut that I should try it out, figuring that if you weren’t CIA there’d be no harm done. Why do you ask?”

Sydney shrugged slightly; really, there had been no purpose for her question, it had simply popped into her mind and she was curious. She leaned over and kissed him quickly saying, “I love you.”

“Love you,” Vaughn mumbled as he slid down in bed. Sydney switched off the light beside her and then did the same, snuggling herself into Vaughn’s warm embrace. “So what are you going to do tomorrow, hmm?” Vaughn asked, kissing her forehead gently.

“I dunno,” she sighed. “Whatever I feel like doing, I guess. Maybe I’ll go to the beach; I haven’t been there in ages.”

“Mm beach sounds good; I’ll come with ya. Don’t forget we’re going to the movies this weekend,” he reminded her.

“I know, I know. I’m all ready to eat fakely buttered popcorn that will clog my arteries and leave a strange aftertaste in my mouth for the next week,” she told him.

Vaughn couldn’t help but laugh at this. “Well, at least you have a positive attitude about it.”

“Mmmhmm,” Sydney sighed into his chest. Despite her slightly bitter sounding exterior, she really was excited about going to the movies with Vaughn. In fact, she was excited about doing anything and everything with Vaughn for…well, the rest of forever as far as she was concerned.

Lying there in his arms, her thoughts drifted back to their time together in captivity. She had never been so happy that she had trusted her instincts and allowed herself to trust him, for that had been the best thing she had ever done in her life. She recalled one conversation they had, shortly before her mother let them go, about one wish they’d had. His wish had been not to be lonely anymore and Sydney was glad that, thanks to her, that wish was hopefully going to be coming true for him.

“Hey Vaughn?” Sydney said softly. He grunted at her. “Do you ever think about leaving the agency? I mean, do you plan on being a field agent forever?”

“No,” he mumbled, the sluggishness of his voice indicating that he was nearing sleep. “I’d definitely stop once we had kids… maybe sooner… like when we’re married.”

A small smile crossed Sydney’s face at his comments. Whether it was subconscious or intentional, Vaughn had used the word ‘we’ when referring to children and marriage, implying that she’d be the one he’d be sharing those things with. Even though they had only known each other three months and been together less than that, the rational side of Sydney – the side that would have forced her to wait at least a year before even coming close to comprehending such thing with a significant other – was happy to picture forever with Vaughn just as much as her wishful heart was.



Epilogue

“Come on Mrs. Vaughn,” Vaughn grinned. He slipped one hand under her thigh and the other around her back as he scooped her up.

She giggled and looped her arms around his neck. “Why thank you Mr. Vaughn,” she grinned at him. She leaned up and kissed his cheek just as he carried her over the threshold to the house they had purchased together along the beachy coast of Santa Monica.

It had been over a year and a half since the two of them had met in less than favorable conditions. Practically ever since then, Sydney had been an English teacher at a Santa Monica high school, commuting daily from LA, where she lived with Vaughn (they had moved in together a mere month after returning from the captive world, much to Jack Bristow’s displeasure). Meanwhile, Vaughn remained on active field duty until six months earlier, when he proposed to Sydney on the year anniversary of the day they met and changes for their new CIA-free life began.

Vaughn took a job with an international trading firm, putting his international business degree to good use. He and Sydney continued commuting to their jobs but found spending an extra hour on LA’s crowded freeways ridiculous. That was when they started looking for a new house close to both their jobs. They found it in a perfect two story beach villa they fell in love with immediately.

A week after they signed the deal on their house, they were married, and after a two week long honeymoon in the Caribbean, they were ready to move in. “Oh I just love it,” Sydney sighed as she walked onto their back porch, which had a perfect ocean view.

Vaughn came up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist. “Me too,” he sighed.

Sydney turned around in his arms and was just about to kiss him when they heard footsteps approaching and saw a couple around their age coming up to their porch. “Hello, hello! We’re the Thomson’s. I’m Becky and this is my husband Steve. We just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood,” the woman said in a very nasal tone while holding out a bottle of wine.

“Oh, thank you,” Sydney said with a grin, taking the bottle. “I’m Sydney and this is my husband Michael.”

“Oohh are you two newlyweds?!” Becky asked with a slight squeal. Sydney and Vaughn exchanged laughs and nodded. “Ohh how wonderful! How did you two meet?!”

Again, Sydney and Vaughn exchanged laughs. “Well… um, we met on vacation,” he said, using the lie they had come up with for their ‘normal’ life.

“In Mexico City,” Sydney added.

“Oh how lovely!” Becky grinned. “Well I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone then. See you!”

“Bye!” Sydney called after her with a laugh. Then she turned to Vaughn and they both laughed softly. “Well, she was nice.”

“But she seems nosy… we’ll have to keep our eye on her,” Vaughn said in a slightly paranoid manner.

“Vaughn!” Sydney laughed. “You sound like we’re gonna have to put a hit on her. We’re done with that, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah I know,” he sighed before kissing her nose gently.

“Hey wait… you, uh, kept your gun holster… right?” she asked with a sly grin.

“Bristow you are terrible,” Vaughn shook his head and laughed.

“Uh uh,” she shook her head. He looked at her curiously. “I’m a Vaughn now,” she smiled.

“That’s right,” he said, lifting her up off the ground as she squealed. “You are.”

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