Shades of Blue

Author: Janet (SkyGirl5)

Genre: S/V, AU

Summary: At first, Sydney Bristow finds Michael Vaughn to be the slightly quirky tech support man in her office, but a chance meeting a year later just might change her mind. [

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

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Chapters 1-10 // Chapters 11 - 20 + Epilogue

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Chapter 11

Immediately after Sydney disappeared from his apartment, Michael called her and left her a very apologetic phone message, practically begging her to call him. Three days later he still hadn’t heard from her and that was after numerous messages. Finally, he decided he needed to take matters into his own hands so he went over to her apartment.

“Go away Michael,” he heard her slightly muffled voice from behind her shut apartment door.

“Go away?! Sydney please, come on open the door. You can’t just not speak to me forever because of what Eric said!” Michael exclaimed, frustrated.

Sighing loudly, Sydney opened the door. Michael noticed immediately that her hair was a wreck, up in a loose bun at the top of her head, and her eyes appeared to be blood shot. She was wearing an oversized college sweatshirt and shorts made from sweat pant material. One look at her and it was obvious she was in post-break up mode only, the funny thing was, as far as Michael knew, they were still together.

“Sydney,” Michael sighed in a heavy tone. “I’m sorry for what Eric said but he was just being Eric! You know I don’t think those things anymore and I would never ever break up with you out of spite.”

Sydney looked down at her feet. She knew Michael would never do the things Eric suggested, but it still hurt to hear them being said. “Michael… the thing is… we’re just fooling ourselves here…”

“What are you talking about?!” Michael asked, completely confused.

“Oh come on Michael. Eric isn’t the only person you told about what a bitch I was to you last year, is he?!” she demanded.

“What?! Yes he is… well I may have mentioned it in passing to my mother but that’s it! Even so it doesn’t matter because you apologized and I forgave you and we moved past it,” Michael insisted.

“No, no we didn’t,” she shook her head. “I still think about it and I still feel like shit because of it. Eric just further proved my point. No matter what happens in the future with us I’ll always be that girl who ripped your heart out and because of that nothing can ever happen with us because later on down the road – it might be a year or it might be five – but it’ll come back to haunt you and you’ll remember what a terrible person I was.”

“Sydney, no, god no,” he shook his head. Her defeated tone was breaking his heart. He reached out to touch her arm but she stepped back. “Sydney, please, don’t do this. You don’t want to do this. We were having a great time together, weren’t we?!”

“Yeah, we were,” she admitted as her heart shattered into a few thousand more pieces. “But that’s over now. You know this is for the best…. Goodbye Michael,” she sighed as she slowly shut the door. Once it was shut, she leaned back against it and slowly slid to the floor where she hugged her knees tightly. It was for the best, she told herself over and over again as she sat there, unmoving. But, if it was for the best, why did it make her feel worse to have the Michael chapter in her life finally closed?

~*~

“Jesus would you stop slamming things!” Eric growled at his friend when he emerged from the bathroom, towel around his waist. Eric had heard the front door to their apartment slam even with the shower water on and then, once he was out of the shower, he heard three more slamming things, but wasn’t quite sure which doors exactly had been slammed.

“You know what you just… you,” Michael growled at Eric, too furious to form words.

“What?!” Eric asked innocently.

“This is your fault!”

“What is?!”

“THIS!! Sydney broke up with me because of you and your big fat stupid mouth!” Michael shouted.

“She broke up with you?!” Eric asked, a smirk slowly crossing his face.

At the sound of his friend’s laugh, Michael shot him a death glare. “This isn’t funny Eric – I really liked her!”

“Look, Michael, I know you’re pissed right now but in the end, this is the best. I mean, she ripped your heart out twice now – just be glad you’re out before you got in any further and she ripped your heart out then,” Eric told him before walking into his bedroom.

Michael stalked off to his bedroom where he slammed yet another door before flopping down on his bed face first. Eric was wrong; he didn’t know what the hell he was talking about; he didn’t know Sydney. Sydney would have never hurt him, or so Michael chose to believe. She was so remorseful about what she had said the prior year he was convinced she’d do nothing like it ever again. Now, he would never get the chance and there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn’t force her to see that he would never care about what happened in the past. He’d just have to live without her in his life.

Before he got too depressed or mopey about his breakup, Michael picked himself up off of his bed and removed every Sydney memory item from his room. This included two movie ticket stubs, their unused mini-golf score card and restaurant receipts. He hadn’t kept these things as Sydney memory tokens on purpose, of course; he simply wasn’t organized or neat unless he forced himself to be and, with Sydney as a distraction, tidiness had taken a back seat.

Once all those things were thrown away, he cleaned up the rest of his room, figuring he may as well since he was in a cleaning frame of mind. Then, once everything was in better condition, he lay across his bed and popped a DVD movie into his computer. Distractions were essential to surviving another post-Sydney depression funk. At least that time, he knew exactly how to handle it.

~*~

“Good lord what happened to you? You look like your favorite muppet just got trampled to death by Big Bird’s big orange feet,” Nadia said to her sister.

For a moment, Sydney was unsure of how to respond to such an odd comment but she managed to sigh out, “You know, I’m really not in the mood to be razzed by my sister, the stripper.”

“HEY!” Nadia began in a very defensive tone. “I manage those strippers and they’re not strippers either – they’re entertainers.”

“To-may-to, to-mah-to,” Sydney said with a casual hand wave.

“Girls, stop” Irina interjected, trying to stop an impending cat fight. “Although, Nadia does have a point… Sydney, sweetheart, are you alright?”

“Fine,” Sydney said in a woeful, un-‘fine’ tone. “I just broke up with Michael, that’s all…”

“Um, correct me if I’m wrong, but if you broke up with him shouldn’t he be the one practically in tears and not you?” Nadia asked slowly. Sydney shrugged.

“What happened?” their mother asked Sydney in a very concerned tone.

With a heavy sigh, Sydney began the tale of her relationship with Michael, starting with a review of what happened the previous year and then skipping ahead to when she ran into him at the park and all subsequent events. She finished with relaying what Eric had said that night at Michael’s apartment. “And I just… I can’t be that person. It’s bad enough I’m that scummy person in my mind.”

“Sydney, you’re not a bad person,” her mother assured her. “This Eric person shouldn’t have said what he said and it doesn’t mean anything Sydney. You really liked Michael didn’t you?”

“I guess,” Sydney said casually as she looked away. “It doesn’t really matter though… it’s over. I’m moving on,” she said firmly.

Irina exchanged looks with her younger daughter. Both of them knew Sydney was lying, but there was nothing they could do about it. Sometimes Sydney’s stubbornness was really very detrimental to her happiness.



Chapter 12

~ January, 2007 – six months later ~

“Sydney Anne Bristow you are the most pathetic human being ever to walk the face of the earth!” Nadia exclaimed to her sister upon walking into her apartment.

“Oh my god Nadia I love you too!” Sydney exclaimed loudly in a mock voice before her expression went to the sad, moping one she had been wearing for six months.

“Seriously, you’re pathetic – but never fear, Nadia’s here,” she beamed. Sydney rolled her eyes and shuffled her way back to her position on the couch. “Jesus you’ve got like an ass print there and everything. You haven’t been out of the house since like… summer and every date I set you up on you just cancel but I’ve got a fool proof way to get you socializing again.”

“Oh, do you?” Sydney asked in a highly skeptical tone.

“Uh huh,” Nadia smiled. She went into her sister’s bedroom and, from her desk in there, unhooked her laptop computer (which was rarely used due to Sydney’s extreme lack of technological skills) and carried it out into the sitting area, whereupon Sydney groaned at the sight of it. “Stop bitching,” Nadia told her rather harshly.

“Nad, you know I can’t use that thing,” Sydney told her.

“Yeah and that’s just one more reason why you’re freakin’ pathetic. This is my belated Christmas gift to you,” Nadia smiled, sitting beside her.

Sydney waited for a solid minute of silence for the explanation, but it never came. “Um… what is?” she asked finally.

“I’m going to show you,” Nadia smiled. She booted up the computer and, once it was on, opened up an internet explorer window and typed in a web address. “Check it out,” she said proudly, tilting the computer towards her sister so she could see.

“Dates dot com?” Sydney read aloud. It took only a few moments for Sydney to realize Nadia’s purpose in showing her this strange website. Upon discovering this, she groaned loudly, “Oh Nadia no, no, no, no and, did I mention, NO?!”

“Don’t knock it ‘til you try it Syd. Check it out – I signed you up with the screen name RunningFreak8 and-”

“RUNING FREAK?!” Sydney screeched.

Nadia shrugged. “Couldn’t think of anything good. See, the whole point of this site is anonymity. You never reveal your real name – only your screen name thus it is free from the fears of being stalked and gruesomely murdered,” Nadia told her with a grin and an encouraging nod. Sydney moaned loudly and covered her face with her hands.

“Oh come on – it’s fun. See, you can only message or be messaged by people in the geographic area you specify, so I specified this area so they’re people you could potentially meet up with and date should you find them suitable,” Nadia said. Sydney stared her sister down but was otherwise expressionless. “Oh, come on Syd, give it a try. Please?”

Sydney looked at her sister and sighed. She knew Nadia meant well no matter how odd or misguided her attempts to get Sydney back out into the dating world. Plus, Sydney really couldn’t argue with Nadia’s accusation that her life was pathetic because her life was, in fact, pathetic. So, what harm could happen by trying some ridiculous online dating site that she knew she’d never be able to work and most likely give up on within the week. “Fine,” she sighed finally. Nadia’s face lit up and she began showing her sister how to search for people to message and how to check messages she had received.

After a twenty minute lesson, Sydney felt reasonably comfortable with the web site, which really was as comfortable as she was going to get considering the fact that her computer skills were so lacking they were practically negative. Shortly after Nadia finished her explanation, she left to go to work (thankfully, she had quit the ‘gentlemen’s club’ and moved on to a much more respectable job managing a clothing store at a local strip mall). In her sister’s absence, Sydney began perusing the site and decided to read the messages that had been left for her.

The first message she came across was from a person with the screen name ‘hogmaster56’, so Sydney decided it was best to skip over that one and move on to the next one. The second message, roughly summarized, told her that from her screen name, this person could tell she was a ‘hot mama’ and they should ‘cyber’. Not even fully knowing what the term ‘cyber’ meant, she deleted that message quickly and, after reading the third and fourth messages (neither of which were significantly better than the second), she became discouraged. There was only one more message in her inbox though, so she decided to give it a shot.

The fifth and final message came from a person called ‘TS1127i’ and it read, Hey, RunningFreak8, I just wanted to say that I love what you said on your profile about Tom Cruise. You’re right, the man really does need to be sent to his own island where he can live in peace and scientology harmony. Laughing softly to herself, she wondered what exactly was in her profile that he was commenting on.

It took her the better part of five minutes to figure out how to view her profile, but, once she did, she found a few quotes there she recognized from conversations with her sister. The quote TS1127i was commenting on had stemmed from Sydney and her sister watching TV together one even and seeing a promotional clip for an interview with Tom Cruise, which had spurred a discussion about his nauseatingly prominent face in the media. If she said so herself, Sydney found that quote rather amusing, so she decided to write back to TS1127i and thank him for his comment.

Of course, figuring out how to reply to his message took another five minutes and, once she completed that, she viewed his profile and found out a few facts about himself – nothing specific, of course, just his favorite movie and a five year age range (30-34). After reading this, she sat back and stared at her computer screen, a soft smile across her face. Maybe dates-dot-com wasn’t such a bad idea after all.



Chapter 13

For Michael Vaughn, signing up for dates-dot-com had been nothing more than the result of being on the losing end of a bet. It started out as a simple, friendly wager over a video game; something that happened frequently around the Vaughn-Weiss bachelor pad. Mostly, they’d bet that the loser of the game had to do the dishes or scrub the toilet or some other sort of unpleasant task. That particular bet, however, was a bit different.

Apparently, at Eric’s work, all the single men had joined dates-dot-com as a sort of joke, but sort of serious attempt to find a female someone to marry at their ‘old’ ages. Eric had been skeptical of the idea immediately, being a fan of the classic ‘pick up a chick at the local watering hole’ routine. When Eric told Michael of his skepticism, Michael had said, “Oh, no it’ll be fine; it’s cool actually. Very twenty-first century.”

Michael had been only half-serious of course, all the while thinking in his mind that he wouldn’t be caught dead doing such a thing. He too was a fan of a more traditional method. Although instead of meeting a slightly questionable woman at the local watering hole (aka a seedy bar with equally seedy patrons), he preferred a park or, at the very least, the mall. Eric, however, hadn’t heard the sarcasm in Michael’s comment and dared him to join as well since, in the previous six months Michael’s social life had been less than satisfactory. Sure, he had had a few dates, but that was pretty much the extent of it – a few dates.

Since Michael lost the video game they had bet on, he was forced to join dates-dot-com. For over a month, he had remained inactive in using his account, seeing no purpose whatsoever in it. Until one night, that was, when he couldn’t sleep and was bored so he decided to read a few profiles on the website, figuring no harm could come of it and, most likely, it would result in at least one laugh, if not more. That fateful night he had come across the profile for RunningFreak8 and read her amusing comments about Tom Cruise. When he laughed out loud at the things she had said, he knew he had to send her a message. The moment he pressed the ‘send message’ button, though, he was almost positive he’d never hear a reply and, even if he did, that nothing would come of it. He, however, couldn’t have been more wrong.

The day he sent that first message had been two months earlier. When he hadn’t received a reply within five days he figured he never would. Much to his surprise, though, on the six day, when he checked his inbox, he found a reply message from RunningFreak8. He wasn’t quite sure how, but that had sparked a regular exchange of messages between them. They never talked about anything too specific, of course, as was the regulation for dates-dot-com, but Michael had to admit he actually looked forward to messages from her, to the point where he thought he was actually losing his mind.

What was he doing thinking of this person he only knew as RunningFreak as someone resembling a friend, let alone more? He knew essentially nothing about her – well, not nothing, but very little and yet he looked forward to their message exchanges, which, by that point, were almost daily.

Up until beginning his correspondence with RunningFreak, Michael had been stuck in his post-breakup depression. It wasn’t as though he was still missing Sydney (though if she had turned up on his doorstep he would have had trouble saying no to her). It had been six months and he realized that they were over. His depression stemmed more from the fact that in his thirty years he had yet to find someone he enjoyed talking to more than he had enjoyed talking to Sydney. Each time he went out on a date it only seemed to reaffirm the fact that there was no one on earth perfectly suited for him – ergo, depression.

With RunningFreak, though, his hope in the female population was restored. She made him laugh. She made him smile. She made him think and not in a bad way, either; in the good way that every now and again you need to think about a topic that actually means something.

That evening as Michael lay sprawled out across his bed, he was anxiously waiting for RunningFreak’s reply to his latest message. He had suggested that they use instant message instead of the message sending (which was almost like email) on dates-dot-com. This, of course, was a slightly larger step in the development of their relationship, but, as Michael saw it, as long as their instant messaging screen names were the same as they used on dates-dot-com, there really was no difference except convenience and speed of conversation.

Just as he was about to start a new game of FreeCell, a new instant message window popped up. The text was pink and bold and it simply read: RunningFreak8: Hey.

A grin spread across Michael’s face as he typed his reply, TS1127i: you got my message.

RunningFreak8: I did and you’re right this is easier. So what are you doing this fine Friday night, aside from being the life-of-the-party, social butterfly that you are?
TS1127i: lol, actually I’m solving world hunger
RunningFreak8: really? How’s that going?
TS1127i: it’s harder than I thought it’d be actually… I’m starving
RunningFreak8: LOL!
TS1127i: so, how was work today?
RunningFreak8: eh, you know – work. Although it was worse than usual because I had to fire someone and I hate doing that I feel like such a horrible person doing that. I mean, this poor guy had a wife and two kids but…well, it was my boss that made the decision so, really, it was out of my hands
TS1127i: I’m sorry to hear that. I don’t think I could ever fire anyone
RunningFreak8: well it definitely isn’t one of my talents, let me tell you

A grin crossed Michael’s face as he typed his next question, TS1127i: well, what are your talents then?
RunningFreak8: well, I can wiggle my ears and… put my feet behind my head
TS1127i: lol I asked what your talents were, not your stupid human tricks ;)
RunningFreak8: oh, sorry lol. I dunno. I used to be really great at French when I took it in high school… though, I don’t think that’s a talent.
TS1127i: I took French in high school too… though I wasn’t that great at it
RunningFreak8: uh oh I gotta go – my younger sister’s calling me and she says she has a major crisis… she probably broke a nail… ttyl.

Michael laughed aloud at RunningFreak’s final comment before she signed off. Sighing slightly, he rolled over onto his back and stared up at his ceiling wondering who, exactly RunningFreak really was.



Chapter 14

“Nad, can I ask you a very serious relationship question?” Sydney asked her sister. It was one of the first truly hot Saturdays in June and the two of them had decided it would be the perfect opportunity to do some sister bonding while getting tan at the local public swimming pool.

Nadia rolled her head in her sister’s direction and asked with shock, “You’re asking me a relationship question?” Sydney nodded slightly. “Sydney, who the hell are you in a relationship with? It’s been ten years since you were out on a date.”

“It has not been ten years. It’s been two months since I went out with that oddly breathing man whose mother is friends with Mom, but that’s not the point. And it’s not a relationship per-say… it’s this guy… from dates-dot-com…,” Sydney said quietly.

“Dates-dot-com?!” Nadia asked in shock. Sydney nodded with a slightly sheepish expression. “Seriously!? You’re using that?!”

“Yea… I’ve been talking to this guy for six months actually,” Sydney told her.

“SIX MONTHS?!” Nadia gasped. “What’s his name?”

“TS1127i.”

“No, seriously…”

“Seriously that’s all I know. That’s my point. I think I might want to meet him, but I’m not sure…what do you think?”

“Meet him in a public place and have the police on standby,” Nadia told her.

“Naaaaad, I’m serious,” Sydney groaned.

“Do you seriously like him?” Nadia asked.

Sydney nodded. “I’ve talked to him practically every day for like… four months now. I seriously cannot wait to get home and log onto instant messenger – no nerd jokes, please,” she added quickly.

“YOU?! Can’t wait to get home to your computer?! Damn girl you must like him,” Nadia laughed.

“I really do,” Sydney told her, laughing softly at how her relationship with the technological world had changed dramatically since meeting (term used loosely) TS1127i.

“Then go for it – but I was serious about the public place thing. I love ya sis and I’d be real sad if you were found naked wrapped in a plastic shower curtain in a gutter somewhere,” Nadia said.

Sydney grimaced slightly. “Thanks….”

~*~

The next evening, Sydney decided she was going to bring up the idea of meeting face to face with TS1127i. She had been thinking it over for a few weeks and, each time, had come back to the same result. As pathetic as it sounded, she truly thought of TS1127i as a boyfriend-like-person. After all, she spent more time with him (albeit online connected through a DSL modem) than she spent on any dates in the previous year. In fact, during her more recent in person dates, she had compared them to him, thinking how they didn’t make her laugh or smile as much as he did. Any way she thought of it, she came back to the same decision: she had to meet TS1127i and see what he was really like or she’d always wonder.

Of course, meeting him came with some trepidation, lots of it, as a matter of fact. For starters, he could have been one hundred percent different than he had described himself to be, as was the risk with purely cyber relationships. Secondly, although they ‘clicked’ or at least seemed to, online, in person their chemistry could be nonexistent, which would also eliminate any possibility for a romantic relationship between them. Most importantly, though, there was that whole ‘oh my god, he’s an axe murderer’ fear, which would be easily remedied by meeting in a public place as Nadia suggested (though Sydney was planning on doing that anyway).

Finally, TS1127i signed on and Sydney’s hands were trembling as she typed him a message. RunningFreak8: hey so I was wondering… did you ever think about meeting me, you know, for real?

For a solid two minutes, Sydney’s heart pounded, anxiously awaiting his reply. Finally, it came, TS1127i: meet you… seriously?
RunningFreak8: uh, yes…I mean, if you don’t want to…
TS1127i: no, actually, I do. I had been thinking about it myself.
RunningFreak8: really?
TS1127i: yes, really. So, did you want to? I promise I’m not a killer.
RunningFreak8: comforting.
TS1127i: lol I thought so. So…?

Sydney exhaled a long breath as she typed, RunningFreak8: yes… when? Next Saturday?
TS1127i: okay, how about Community Park at noon. There’s a bridge over the narrow part of the lake… do you know what I mean?
RunningFreak8: yes… how will I know you? how will you know me?
TS1127i: I’ll be wearing a red t-shirt that has a Thompson Gymnasium logo on the back and… my Mets cap… you?
RunningFreak8: White tank top with my Yankees cap.
TS1127i: YOU’RE A YANKEES FAN?!
RunningFreak8: lol no, the cap was a gift – I have no strong baseball affiliations
TS1127i: oh thank god
RunningFreak8: you were gonna cancel our meeting, weren’t you?
TS1127i: if you were a die-hard Yankees fan, yes I was.
RunningFreak8: well no worries. So… I’ll see you at noon then…
TS1127i: yep, at noon

Sydney’s hands were still trembling as she logged off instant messenger. She exhaled a long, deep, calming breath to slow her rapidly beating heart. Their meeting was set; there was no backing out. She didn’t want to back out, though; she truly wanted to meet him to see what he was like. She only hoped that, in the end he wasn’t a huge disappointment.

~*~

“You’re seriously meeting this chick?! What are you, insane?!” Eric demanded of his friend upon hearing his plans.

“What? You don’t think it’s a good idea?” Michael asked.

“Uh, duh?!” Eric responded.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“She could be a killer.”

“Yes, I’m sure she’s going to kill me in the middle of Community Park,” Michael rolled his eyes. “Come on Eric, at least pretend to be supportive, okay? I really, really like her and… who knows she might… she might be somebody, you know?”

“As…opposed… to…?” Eric asked with confusion.

“I mean, we might actually form a relationship,” Michael clarified.

“Whatever man – just don’t come crying to me when cyber girl turns out to be a dog. Oh, speaking of, have you guys…,” Eric raised his eyebrows suggestively.

Michael looked at his mind-numbingly dense friend with a blank expression for a solid minute before saying sharply, “Eric, what part of ‘I’m meeting her for the first time tomorrow’ did you fail to understand?”

“No I know that – I mean cyber sex,” Eric said.

“Um, Ew?” Michael offered in response.

Eric rolled his eyes. “You’re such a prude.”

“Mm, no I believe the term is ‘normal,’” Michael said with a sigh.

“Yeah, right…says the man who just spent six months calling the computer freak girl his girlfriend,” Eric snorted.

“Shut up,” Michael muttered.





Chapter15

On the morning of her meeting with TS1127i, Sydney was so nervous she could barely think straight. She managed to collect herself enough to shower and change into her white tank top and Capri jeans, but barely. Finally, at eleven forty-five she left her apartment and walked quickly down to her car so she’d be on time to meet him.

As she was walking from her car to the bridge over the lake, she almost turned around three times, her nerves nearly taking over her. After all, what was she doing? The way she saw it, she had a mere fraction of a chance – one in one hundred thousand if lucky – of finding out that TS1127i was the perfect guy. So, in ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine chances out of one hundred she was going to be let down, meaning disappointment was almost guaranteed. Still, she kept on walking; she had to know.

When she reached the bridge, she saw no one on it at all. Glancing down at her watch she saw there were still three minutes left until noon, meaning TS1127i wasn’t late yet. She slowly approached the bridge and walked across it carefully, as though one misstep would send her plummeting down hundreds of feet to her death. She wasn’t quite sure why she felt that way, except perhaps it was the foreboding of her meeting with TS1127i.

As she stood on the center of the bridge leaning over the railing, she glanced down at her watch practically every fifteen seconds; alternating adjusting the ball cap on her head (which was bothering her since she wasn’t used to wearing hats), and shuffling her flip-flop clad feet against the wooden bridge. Finally, at twelve-oh-three she heard footsteps creaking on the bridge to her left. Taking a deep breath, she turned and, when she locked eyes with the approaching man, she gasped and her eyes widened as large as they could possibly go. His reaction mirrored hers and, for a solid few moments, they stared at each other.

“Sydney…,” Michael was the first to speak. “You’re… RunningFreak?”

“I… Oh… I, um… yes…,” she stammered, her heart feeling as though it was beating up into her throat. “You’re… and…my god, how is this…,” she let her voice drift off, still unable to form a complete thought.

Michael, however, remedied their lack of verbal ability for them. He took three swift steps towards her, looped his arms around her waist and kissed her, which wasn’t quite as romantic as he had planned, since the brims of their baseball hats were in the way. He pulled back and removed his own hat before going in for a second kiss. That time, Sydney responded and moved her arms to his back, kissing him back fully.

“Mm Michael wait,” she sighed after a moment’s kissing, removing her hat as well. “This is… I mean… god it’s you! I’ve been talking to you… this is insane.”

“I know its – wait… when the hell’d you learn how to use a computer?!” Michael asked in total shock.

Sydney blushed softly and laughed. “Nadia taught me and I sorta picked it up. It turns out it’s not all that hard if I actually try.”

“Uh huh,” he laughed back at her. Then, he gently reached up his hand and stroked her cheek. For a moment, she leaned into his hand as her eyes drifted shut but then she realized exactly what was happening.

“Michael, wait, stop,” she said, taking a step back. “This is… we can’t. I mean, we’ve been here; we’ve done this it… it didn’t work.”

“No, Sydney, you wouldn’t let us work,” Michael told her. “Look at us! Look at where we are! A year ago we met here by complete accident and now we’re here again because we randomly messaged each other on an internet dating site. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?!”

“Well,” she paused and sighed. It was rather coincidental but… “It doesn’t change what happened.”

“No, it doesn’t, but I think it proves there’s a higher power at work here. I don’t know if you believe in destiny or not but… you gotta admit this is pretty ironic, isn’t it?”

“Yeah…,” she laughed softly. It was very ironic.

“Sydney,” Michael said, closing the distance between them once more. He took both of her hands in his and squeezed them tightly. “I love you.”

“Wha…” Sydney let out a breathy gasp while trying to back away from him, but he refused to let her move. Tears burned in her eyes and her heart rate sped up even faster. “You… you shouldn’t…”

“Why not?” he said, smile never leaving his face. “Sydney, I was falling in love with you last year even after just a month of dating and… these past six months I’ve loved talking to that person online. I couldn’t wait to talk to you every day and I thought that maybe, if I met you in person, my feelings would be stronger, but… but finding out that you’re the same person well… I know that I love you.”

Unable to stand it any longer, Sydney wrapped her arms around Michael’s neck, hugging him tightly as a few tears rolled down her cheeks. She held him there for a few minutes, reveling in the feeling of his arms around her once more, and then, she pulled back, wiping her cheeks dry with her finger tips. “I… I don’t know what to say… I’m confused I... I don’t know if I love you… I’m sorry,” she said, looking down towards her feet.

Michael reached out to her chin and tilted her face up towards his. Sydney saw that he was still smiling. “That’s okay, you can take your time but… we will take the time, right? Please?”

Sydney silently nodded her head. She couldn’t let her fears of what might happen in the future regarding her faux pas of two years prior control her anymore. Her happiness depended on having Michael in her life. Taking a step forward, she brought her lips to his once more, kissing him as her arms found his waist.

“Mm,” Michael sighed when they broke. “Not that I mind but I think our PDA’s are making the ducks slightly uncomfortable,” he said, gesturing towards the lake below them, where quacking could be heard.

Sydney laughed softly and blushed. “Well then… how about you come over tonight for dinner and we won’t scar the ducks anymore.”

“Pizza Mac?” he asked with a grin. She nodded. “Then I’m definitely there.”



Chapter 16

“Good morning Eric,” Michael said in an extra exuberant tone when he returned to his apartment shortly before one o’clock.

“Boy,” Eric began with a yawn, “your internet chick must not be hideous if you’re that happy. What is she, a Victoria’s Secret model!?”

“Nope; better,” Michael beamed.

“PLAYBOY?!” Eric asked with excitement and a hopeful expression.

“No,” Michael laughed. “It’s Sydney.”

“Sydney, Sydney?! The Sydney?!” Eric asked. Michael nodded. “WHAT?!”

“It’s coincidence Eric… or fate, destiny – I don’t care what! It something but it’s real. You will not ruin this for me Eric – understand? NOT! I swear to god if you say anything to freak Sydney out again I’ll smother you in your sleep and I’ll make it look like an accident,” he threatened in a very real tone. Of course, he didn’t have any intentions of letting Eric and Sydney in the same room again until… well, maybe at the wedding.

“Fine, fine, whatever,” Eric muttered. “Just don’t cry to me when I have to say ‘I told you so…,’” he sighed as he walked back towards his bedroom. Michael ignored him completely. Nothing was going to get his mood down that day; absolutely nothing.

~*~

Immediately after leaving the park, Sydney went to the grocery store to pick up the items she’d need to compile pizza mac for dinner. Then, she went home and straightened up her apartment since its condition had slowly deteriorated in the weeks since she had last cleaned. The entire afternoon, even while she was scrubbing her bathroom counter top, the grin never left her face. It was her Michael-grin, one that hadn’t been around for a year; one that she had missed and was very glad had finally returned.

As she prepared their dinner for that evening, Sydney’s thoughts were on Michael. She was combining the things she knew about him from their conversations a year prior to the things she found out about TS1127i in the previous six months. She noted a bunch of similarities and repeat conversations, as was expected, but there were even more things she learned about him via their online conversations. When she fully realized that they had only actually dated in person for a month, she was shocked. It felt like ages longer but, then again, she supposed that was a sign of a good relationship; feeling as though you’ve known the person your whole life where as, really, it’s only been a fraction of that time.

At six sharp, Sydney heard a knock at her apartment door and rushed to open it with a giggle. When she pulled open the door, instead of seeing Michael’s face, she found a large bouquet of red roses and baby’s breath. “Oh my god,” Sydney giggled. “What is this?”

Michael lowered the bouquet so that she could see the grin across his face. “Nothin’ much, just somethin’ special for the woman I love,” he said casually.

“Well thank you very much… I’d kiss you but I don’t think I can get through the flowers,” she laughed. She took the vase holding the bouquet from Michael’s arms and carried it over to her kitchen table. She placed it in the center of the table before turning around and giving Michael a sweet kiss. After kissing him, Sydney slipped her arms around Michael’s waist and buried her face in his shoulder, still slightly in disbelief that he was really there. Michael wrapped his arms around her back and kissed her head gently.

Their tender hugging moment was interrupted by the oven timer dinging loudly, signaling that their pizza mac was done baking. When Sydney walked over to the oven to retrieve their meal, Michael walked to the drawer beside the refrigerator to retrieve silverware, which he noticed was missing from the table setting. “So, how’d you get signed up with dates-dot-com anyway?” he asked her.

“Oh,” she laughed softly. “Nadia, who else. She said I had been a giant pathetic loser long enough and as long as I was going to sit home on Friday nights folding laundry I might as well have a loser-ish activity like online dating to go with it because at least, in her mind, that was sort of socialization.”

“I see,” Michael laughed. He decided against asking what had caused her ‘loser-like’ behavior and continued on with, “So you learned how to use the internet hmm?”

“Ha. Ha,” she said dryly, rolling her eyes slightly. “I was always capable of googling things.”

“Right it was just the whole turning the computer on thing that stumped you,” he said with a playful grin. She elbowed him in the ribs as she walked past him to retrieve the Italian bread she had purchased for them.

“I’m much better now, I assure you,” she said. “I mean, I won’t be joining the tech support squad any time soon buuuuuut I can hold my own.”

“Tech support squad? We sound like a super hero gang,” Michael laughed.

Sydney shrugged. “So what about you hot shot? Why’d you join the dating site?”

“Eric, who else?” Michael laughed with a casual shrug. “He and his buddies from work joined it and I might have mocked him a little bit so he bet me to join it after I lost a video game we were playing so…”

“So neither of us wanted to join and yet we did anyway at the hands of our insane friends… again with the coincidence,” she laughed slightly.

“Exactly. I’m telling you, there’s something bigger at work here,” he grinned. Sydney said nothing; she simply smiled slightly and then turned her attention to buttering the piece of Italian bread in her hand.

After cleaning up dinner, Sydney and Michael moved to her couch, where Sydney willingly curled up in Michael’s embrace. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Michael asked cautiously, “Sydney… what you said before about Nadia signing you up for dates-dot-com because you were a loser…”

“It’s true,” she said with a quiet laugh. “I was alone and unhappy. Everyone I found… I… well, no one was as good as you, Michael. I really missed you,” she admitted with a sigh, tucking her head further into his neck. “And, yet again, I’m a jerk…”

“You are not,” he assured her while stroking her arm softly. “This one’s all Eric’s fault… and, I really missed you too.”

“Mm,” she sighed happily, pulling his arms tighter around her body. “Will you stay tonight Michael? Please?”

“Of course; I’ll always stay,” he smiled at her.

“You’re the only guy that’s ever said that to me…”

“Really?” he asked somewhat surprised.

“Mmhmm,” she nodded. “All the other’s groaned and moaned about cuddling and how no self-respecting man would ever enjoy it…”

“Well, you’ll be happy to know that I am very self-respecting and I enjoy it… but, honestly, it was probably your ice cold feet that drove them away,” he said with a slight laugh. This comment, of course, earned him a painful jab in the ribs that caused him to wince.

“You’re so mean to me,” Sydney accused with a laugh.

“I know…but you love it,” he grinned.



Chapter 17

Sunday morning Michael woke up feeling one hundred percent different than he had the previous morning. On Saturday morning, he had awoken along in his cold bed with only his laptop beside him, but on Sunday morning, when he woke up, he had a girlfriend who he loved sleeping in bed beside him. With that, nothing else mattered. The world could have been falling down around him but, as long as he had Sydney, he didn’t even care.

Reveling in that second time they had woken up together, Michael forced himself to stay awake and watch Sydney sleeping beside him. He watched her eyes flutter gently and her chest rise and fall slowly for almost an hour before she groaned and began to move around from her comfortable spot beside him. A wicked smile crossed his face as Michael slipped a hand under their covers and began tickling Sydney’s waist. “Nooo don’t,” she groaned sleepily, batting his hand away. “Too sleepy…”

“Sorry,” he laughed softly. Then he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close, kissing her temple gently. “You’re really beautiful when you sleep,” he told her softly.”

“Stalker!” she gasped fakely. “Get out of my bed you freak!” she said, though she made no attempt to move herself or him in anyway.

Michael laughed loudly. “You’re crazy in the morning.”

“I’m crazy in general,” she corrected.

“Good point…so what are we doing today?”

“We? What are ‘we’ doing today? I dunno what we’re doing today but I’ve got my weekly Sunday brunch with my sister and mother,” Sydney told him.

“Ahh yes… oh I forgot to ask last night – how is the strip club these days?”

Sydney laughed. “Oh she quit thank god. Apparently the owners of the club weren’t very respectful towards women.”

“You’re kidding!” Michael gasped in fake shock.

“No,” Sydney laughed. “So she quit. Now she’s managing some clothing boutique at the mall.”

“Well that’s an improvement…”

“Tell me about it,” she sighed. They snuggled in bed for a few minutes before Sydney forced herself from Michael’s embrace so she could shower. After her shower, she returned to her bedroom to change, expecting to find Michael gone but, instead, found him still in bed, asleep. Smiling softly, she pulled her towel tighter around her and walked over to the bed, shaking his shoulder gently. “Wake up sleepy head,” she said softly.

Within a moment, he stirred and looked up at her with a smile. “Well now this is a nice way to wake up,” he said before yawning.

“Ha, ha,” she said dryly. “What happened?”

“I dunno,” he mumbled as he sat up and stretched. “I was just thinking ‘oh two more minutes and I’ll get up’… and the next thing I knew you were shaking me.”

“Uh huh, well you’d better get going before you fall asleep again,” she said with a playful grin. She leaned over and kissed his forehead before walking over to the chest of drawers in her room and retrieving clothes to wear that day. Knowing he wasn’t moving she said without looking at him, “If you think you’re going to see something,” she paused to slam a drawer shut, “you’re sadly mistaken.”

“Darn,” he laughed.

~*~

“Oh Sydney, I forgot to ask, how’d you meeting go with your internet rapist killer boyfriend go?” Nadia asked just as casually as ever during lunch with her mother and sister. Sydney gave Nadia a death glare as their mother nearly choked to death on the water she had been sipping.

“SYDNEY!” Irina gasped, once she had regained the ability to breathe properly. “You met some… some man from the internet?!”

“No, Mom, it’s not like how it sounds,” Sydney defended while still glaring at her smirking sister. “I’d been talking to him for six months through this internet dating thing Nadia set me up with and-”

“You set her up with?!! Do you know how dangerous that is?!” Irina demanded of her younger daughter.

“Mom, chill. I never expected Sydney’d meet one of those creepy people…”

“Well, as it turns out, the man I was going to meet is Michael,” Sydney said with a proud smile. Confusion crossed her mother’s face as she tried to confirm whether that Michael was the same Michael she had been dating and broken up with the previous year. “Yep,” Sydney confirmed with an even larger smile.

“So… this schmuck is stupid enough to go out with you after you ripped his heart out twice?! Talk about a glutton for punishment…,” Nadia laughed.

“Nadia,” her mother sighed heavily. “Could you at least attempt to be supportive for once…”

“Besides, I’m not letting Michael go this time… at least…I don’t think so…,” Sydney said slowly, casting her eyes down towards her plate. Nadia groaned loudly. “It’s not my fault!” Sydney defended. “I’m… confused… Michael says he loves me…”

“And… you don’t love him?” Irina asked after her daughter had been silent for almost a minute. Sydney mumbled incoherently and shrugged. “Well, Sydney, if I recall correctly you only dated him for a month. Perhaps you should go on a few more dates before you pass judgment,” her mother suggested.

“She’s just being stupid,” Nadia chimed in. Both her mother and sister gaped at her. “Well she is!! She’s been depressed and lonely, wishing she was with Michael for like… a freakin’ year and now that she’s with him she wants to break up-”

“I never said that!” Sydney defended herself.

“Whatever,” Nadia rolled her eyes. “You have commitment phobia.”

“I do not!”

“Uh, yeah, ya do,” Nadia told her.

Sydney ‘hmph’-ed under her breath, annoyed. “Well if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black….,” she muttered.

“Excuse me, I am younger than you – I can be commitment phobic without my ovaries shriveling up and wasting away all my child-bearing years alone in my apartment with my TV.”

With this comment, Irina snorted with laughter. “Nadia, your sister’s ovaries are not shriveling up. My goodness, she’s only thirty!”

“Old maid,” Nadia shot at her sister.

Sydney restrained herself from shooting less than appropriate retorts at her sister, at least while their mother was in the room. “Whatever,” Sydney sighed. “I’m with Michael and that’s… well, that’s that. Besides, thirty isn’t that old…,” she said in an attempt to sound casual but, really, sounded fearful.

“Of course it’s not,” her mother smiled at her. “Don’t pay any attention to your sister, dear; you still have plenty of child bearing years left.”

“Thanks mom…,” Sydney said with a sigh.



Chapter 18

For the next month, things between Michael and Sydney were just as perfect as ever. They phased back into their relationship almost as though they had never been apart at all. They continued their Saturday morning jogs together (after their break up the previous year, Sydney had stopped her Saturday morning jogs, fearing she’d run into Michael, and switched to Saturday evening jogs) as well as spending time together during the weekends, though they steered clear of the mini-golf course, just in case.

With each passing day, Michael was falling more in love with Sydney. He was so in love with her that, after just one more month of dating, bringing their relationship to a grand total of two months of actual face-to-face dating, he was convinced she was the woman he was going to marry. Sydney, of course, was slightly more objective and cautious when approaching their relationship and Michael knew this, so he was careful not to express too many far in the future implications of their relationship.

On their six week anniversary of meeting on the bridge at the park, Michael invited Sydney to join him and his mother for lunch, figuring it was about time they met. Sydney was slightly hesitant but, in the end, Michael’s charming smile won her over and she agreed to go, though she was nervous about meeting Mrs. Vaughn. Michael sensed her concerns and warned his mother ahead of time to do as little prying as possible during their meal.

“Sydney it is wonderful to finally meet you,” Mrs. Vaughn greeted her with a warm handshake and an ear-to-ear grin. “I’ve heard so much about you from Michael.”

“Really? What have you heard?” Sydney said with a cautious glance towards Michael, who was standing beside her.

“Well, you know… I mentioned how much I hate you and, of course, your ice cold feet,” he said, teasing of course. Sydney did not appreciate this and punched him playfully in the arm, though her punch was slightly more painful that playful.

“Don’t worry dear – I’ve heard only the best things about you,” Mrs. Vaughn assured her.

“See,” Michael smiled at Sydney. She gave a half smile in return before the two of them followed Mrs. Vaughn into the restaurant where they were having lunch. Because of Mrs. Vaughn’s warm, kind persona, Sydney’s trepidation about their meal together quickly dissipated and she felt as though she was chatting with her own mother about various subjects. Her favorite part of their conversation was when Mrs. Vaughn started telling slightly embarrassing stories about Michael growing up. Naturally, Michael was mortified and he threaded to stab her with a salad fork if she told one more story involving him in a diaper, which only made Sydney laugh harder.

“Michael I do not respond well to threats,” his mother said in a dangerous tone. Michael dropped the fork in his hand and sat back in his seat, pouting slightly. Mrs. Vaughn ignored him and turned to Sydney. “Sydney, tell me about your family. I believe Michael said you had a sister, is that correct?”

“Yes, she’s four years younger,” Sydney told her. “And then my parents… that’s about it. We’re fairly boring,” she laughed slightly.

“What do your parents do?”

“Well, my dad works for an international trading company so he travels a lot and my mom’s a teacher,” Sydney told her.

“OH!” Mrs. Vaughn gasped. “She teaches English at Adams High doesn’t she?!” she asked. Sydney laughed and nodded with a slightly confused expression. “Yes, of course I thought I recognized your last name from somewhere.”

“You…know my mother?” Sydney asked slowly.

“Not well, just in passing. I used to be a guidance counselor at Adams High but now I work at a different school,” Mrs. Vaughn explained. Sydney nodded and smiled. Mrs. Vaughn chattered on about her job and how she should call up Sydney’s mother sometime and they should get together for coffee. With this comment, Sydney’s panic returned. Suddenly she could hardly breathe and felt as though she needed to abandon ship (so to speak). Thankfully their meal was almost over.

The whole drive back to Sydney’s apartment, Michael noticed her fidgeting with her hands and seatbelt more than she usually did. He asked if she was alright, but she assured him she was fine, she merely had a headache. He suggested that she take a nap and she agreed that was a good idea. He dropped her off at her apartment promising to be back later that evening with a pizza and some rented movies they could watch together.

Though Sydney tried to take a short nap in an effort to calm herself, nothing worked. She kept having flashes of her mother and Michael’s mother drinking coffee while looking at bridal magazines pass through her mind. This, of course, was a ridiculous thought. She knew her mother was far too sensible to be planning such things after only six weeks of dating, yet still, they were there.

She was so consumed with her thoughts that she barely even heard Michael knocking at her door. She opened it slowly and found him beaming at her. “Hey babe, is your headache better?” he asked before walking past her, brushing his lips against her cheek on the way.

“Oh, um…I guess,” she said distantly.

“That’s good. I got half plain and half with pepperoni and green peppers, okay?” he said, obviously referring to the pizza in his hand, but Sydney didn’t really pay much attention.

“Yeah…I’m not really that hungry…”

“Oh…kay…,” Michael said slowly. He knew that Sydney’s attitude and behavior were from more than just a headache, but he was too starving to start an argument about it, so he ignored it for the moment.

After Sydney had only taken three bites of pizza before walking away from the table, Michael had no choice but to confront her. “Sydney, what’s the matter? Talk to me please.”

“I just… I’m thinking this isn’t going to work out…,” she said quietly, her back to him.

“What isn’t going to work out?” Michael asked her, though he had a sinking suspicion already.

“Us…”

“NO,” Michael said sharply. “No, Sydney I’m not letting you do this again.”

“I’m not doing this again,” she said evasively, still not looking at him. “It didn’t work before and it’s really not surprising it didn’t work this time so...”

“No, Sydney NO!” he shouted. Then he walked around to face her and held her arms, refusing to let her walk away. She looked up at him and all he could see in her eyes was fear. “You’re scared Sydney; I know that. But, I also know that you love me.”

“I don’t love you,” she said quickly, turning her eyes away as a tear rolled down her cheek.

“Yes you do,” he said boldly, hoping he wasn’t wrong. He didn’t think that he was, but he wasn’t one hundred percent positive. “You’re scared – why are you so scared?”

“I’m not scared!” she said in a defensive way, her voice raising.

“Yes you are.”

“Okay, fine, Mr. ‘I know everything’, why am I so scared then, huh?” she challenged.

“I don’t know, that’s why I asked,” Michael said softly. Sydney went to walk away, which was difficult since Michael was holding her arms firmly. He released her and let her take a few steps away, but he followed her. He had a hunch about why she was so afraid and he decided to go with it. “Sydney, have you ever loved anyone before?”

It took her a moment to respond but, when she did, she croaked, “Yes, once.”

“And what happened?” he led her.

“He…,” she began, her voice a mere squeak. She sniffed slightly and rubbed a few tears from her eyes before continuing. “It was college. Fall break of my senior year… I’d been dating him for almost a year and a half so I brought him home to meet my parents. He was from California and he went home over the long holidays so they never got to meet him, but I wanted them to meet him… so, um, I brought him home and he kept flirting with Nadia and he- he tried to kiss her and I saw and he wasn’t even sorry!” she choked out before reaching for a tissue.

Michael gave her space for a moment before stepping forward and placing a gentle hand in between her shoulder blades on her back. After a moment, when she didn’t move away, he pulled her into a hug. “I’m sorry that happened,” he said quietly before kissing her head gently.

Sydney grabbed a handful of his t-shirt as she pressed her face down into his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she told him after her sobs had quieted.

“’sokay. You don’t have to be sorry; it’s not your fault,” he told her.

She was silent for a few more minutes before finally she raised her head and looked him in the eye. “I… I love you,” she admitted quietly, “but I’m scared…”

“I know,” Michael said with a slight nod. He brushed away her remaining tears with his thumbs and then lowered his face to hers, gently kissing each of her cheeks before kissing her lips softly. When his lips touched hers, Sydney pulled him into a deeper kiss and slid her arms up and around his neck.

When they broke their kiss a minute later, Sydney rested her forehead against Michael’s and sighed, “I’m sorry I’m like…the worst girlfriend in the history of time.”

“You’re not,” he assured her. “I mean, you haven’t killed any of my relatives or broken any of my bones…”

Sydney laughed softly at his comment. “I think I have a way to make it up to you though,” she told him, biting her bottom lip slightly.

“Oh yeah? What’s that?” he asked. Her answer was a simple smile before pulling him into another, longer kiss. That time, instead of locking her arms around his neck, she firmly grabbed the lapels of his button-down shirt and pulled him back through her apartment, being mindful of the various tables and couches in their way. As they stumbled, Michael’s hands drifted up the back of Sydney’s shirt and his fingers danced across the edge of the waistband on her sweatpants. A soft giggle escaped her lips at the feeling of his fingertips on the tender flesh around her hips.

Once in her bedroom, Michael kicked the door shut with his foot (though he wasn’t sure why – it wasn’t like someone else was there to interrupt him) and began assisting Sydney in the unbuttoning of his shirt. Once fully unbuttoned, he let it drop to the floor before groping for the light switch on the wall next to the doorframe.

“What are you doing?” Sydney asked when light flooded the previously dark room.

“Um…turning on the light?” Michael said, stating the obvious in the form of a confused question.

“Why…,” she said slowly.

Before answering, Michael gave her a long kiss. “Because I want to see how beautiful you are,” he told her softly. That was definitely an answer Sydney couldn’t argue with, so, instead of trying to, she smiled and pulled him into another kiss.



Chapter 19

The next morning Michael awoke when the bed was rocking, due to Sydney trying to slide out of it. He opened his eyes to the sight of her pulling on a tank top and shorts before walking to the bathroom. Grinning and laughing softly to himself he pressed his face down into the pillow, recalling the previous wonderful evening. He was exhausted after being up half the night talking and laughing among other things, but it was definitely worth it.

A few minutes later Sydney returned to bed and combed her fingers through his hair when she saw that he was awake. “Morning.”

“Morning yourself,” he smiled at her. “So I have a question – what’s with that little heart tattoo on your-”

“It was a bet,” she giggled.

“Uh huh,” he said, sounding unconvinced.

“It was!”

“No it wasn’t you rebel you,” he said, poking her side playfully.

She squealed and rolled away from him. “It totally was. Freshmen year of college a few of these girls on my hall and I got a little drunk and went downtown to this piercing slash tattoo parlor and the one girl, who already had three tattoos, bet us non-tattooed people that we had to ether get a tattoo or get something pierced - and it wasn’t our ears either.”

“Lovely,” Michael winced.

“Right, so being the pain-fearing person I am, I chose the littlest tattoo possible,” she laughed slightly. “And no one knows about it so you have to keep your mouth shut or I’ll hurt you.”

“No one knows?” he asked. She shook her head. “No one?! Not even Nadia?!”

“NO! and you cannot tell her! She’d never let me hear the end of it… only two other people besides you know… the guys who I’ve…”

“Right,” Michael nodded in understanding. “Smart move getting it in a very non-visible place.”

“Sorta,” she laughed. He gave her a confused look. “Well, getting it done was rather interesting… thank god I was drunk.”

“Nice,” he laughed.

“No, it really wasn’t; I couldn’t sit down for like a week!” she exclaimed. He laughed and kissed her quickly before sliding out of bed and dressing.

Five minutes later, Michael met Sydney in the kitchen by coming up behind her, locking his arms around her waist and lifting her up off the ground in a hug. “What are you doing?” she laughed.

“Nothin’,” he said innocently. He kissed her neck with a loud smack before setting her back down on the ground.

“Michael, will you come with me today to my parents for brunch?” Sydney asked as she turned to face him. “My father’s going to be there – in theory – and I’d like for you to meet everyone.”

“Sure,” he smiled. Then he kissed her goodbye and went home to change and shower so that he’d be back in time to join her, her parents and sister for brunch.

~*~

“Okay, you should know that my father’s a very hostile, short tempered person,” Sydney warned Michael as they were walking across the driveway from her car to her parents house.

“Oh gee Syd this is a fantastic time to warn me,” Michael grumbled, obviously being sarcastic.

“Sorry,” she cringed slightly. “Oh and Nadia… well, she’s Nadia,” Sydney sighed. Michael nodded in understanding. He had heard enough stories about Nadia to get a pretty good idea of what he was dealing with; essentially, he was picturing a female version of Eric.

With a very deep breath, Michael followed Sydney into the Bristow’s warm, inviting home. The first person he saw he recognized immediately as Nadia. She bore a strong resemblance to her sister except she was shorter and her complexion was a bit darker, but otherwise they were very similar in appearance. After Sydney introduced them, Nadia swaggered around Michael, taking him in. “So you’re the Michael we’ve heard about for – what is it? Years now? And yet, Sydney’s never bothered to let us meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Nadia,” Michael told her with a slight laugh as he extended his hand to her.

“Mmhm,” Nadia sighed. She glanced down at his hand briefly before looking back up at him and saying, “Why don’t you take off your shirt instead?”

“NADIA!” Sydney hissed as she smacked the back of her sister’s head. She gave Michael an apologetic glance, but he shook it off, more amused than offended. Sydney then grabbed Michael’s hand and pulled him past her smirking sister and into the kitchen, where her parents were setting the table for their meal. “Mom, Dad, this is Michael Vaughn.”

“Nice to meet you Mrs. Bristow, Mr. Bristow,” Michael nodded to each of them in turn.

“Michael it is wonderful to meet you at last,” Sydney’s mother said as she stepped forward and shook Michael’s hand. Then, the four of them turned to Sydney’s father who was silent and staring Michael down. Knowing the expression on his face wasn’t a good one, Sydney guided Michael to the table, where he sat beside Nadia, who was ogling him still.

“Sydney, how long did you say you and Michael were… dating?” her father asked, wincing slightly on the last word as though it caused him great physical injury.

“Well,” Sydney began, exchanging amused smiles with Michael, “there are several different answers to that question actually.”

“Oh?” he raised an eyebrow at them.

“Yes well you see Michael and I dated for a month about a year ago, but broke up. Then, about seven, not quite eight months ago, we started talking online but we didn’t know that we knew each other because the online thing was anonymous, but six weeks ago we met up at the park and we’ve been officially together since then,” Sydney summarized their dating history as concisely as possible.

“I see…,” he said slowly.

“I think it’s just adorable the way everything worked out for you two,” Sydney’s mother said.

“Yes, cute as a button,” Nadia chimed in with a smile. Sydney gave her an unappreciative look.

The rest of their meal passed fairly uneventfully with light conversation with the exception of the fact that Nadia kept pinching Michael’s arm and knee underneath the table. Each time this would happen, while Nadia remained expressionless, Michael would jump, partly because he was startled and partly because…well, she was touching him. With each jump, Sydney would shoot Michael a quizzical look, but there was nothing he could say, especially not in front of her parents. Finally, though, at the end of the meal, Sydney caught a glimpse of what her sister was doing and shouted loudly, “NADIA MARIE!”

Nadia remained relatively unfazed though mildly faking confusion at her sister’s loud accusation while their parents looked at Sydney with total confusion. “She’s pinching him!” Sydney defended.

“No I’m not,” Nadia said innocently. “Michael isn’t saying anything, is he?”

“She’s pinching me,” Michael admitted in an even tone though he was blushing slightly. Irina shot Nadia a motherly scolding look that made her keep her hands to herself from then on.

At the conclusion of their meal, just as Sydney and her sister were clearing the left over food from the table, their father finally broke his meal-long silence. “I was wondering – you said you two dated last year but only for a month. Why did you break up and, if you broke up, what makes you think it’ll work this time?” he asked in an ‘I know better than you because I’m older’ like tone.

“Well…,” Sydney began slowly, glancing over towards Michael.

“It was just a misunderstanding,” he continued for her. “Silly really.”

“I see,” he nodded to Michael. “I’m just confused, you see. You’re the first boyfriend of my daughter’s I’ve met since she was in college. Frankly, I was under the impression she was incapable of maintaining a relationship at all.”

With his comment, the room fell silent. Michael could only stare at Sydney’s father in total shock he’d said something so harsh about his own daughter. After a moment he managed to move his vision to the rest of the kitchen where Sydney was standing with her chin dropped down to her chest and Nadia was looking intensely uncomfortable.

Finally, Michael felt he needed to say something even though it may not have been his place. “I’m sorry, sir, but your impression was wrong,” he said.

“Oh, really? You can prove that after just six weeks, can you?” Jack challenged.

“It’s hasn’t been just six weeks - well it has, but it was six months before that,” Michael told him.

Jack scoffed under his breath, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Well,” Sydney cleared her throat slightly. “Michael and I have to go. Come on Michael,” she said before quickly leaving the kitchen.

Michael stood, frozen, for a moment before making his way towards the exit with a mumbled, “Thanks for lunch it was nice to meet you...,” on the way out. When he walked outside he found Sydney already behind the wheel of her car staring the engine. He walked quickly over to the car and had barely slid in the passenger seat before Sydney was backing out of the driveway. “Sy-”

“Don’t,” she cut him off sharply before he could even utter a syllable. As she was driving silent tears fell down her cheeks; she didn’t even bother to wipe them away. After she had parked her car and was power-walking her way back to her apartment with Michael close to her heels, she finally broke down.

Michael caught her up in his arms before her knees could buckle beneath her and he held her tightly as she cried. She sobbed in his arms outside her apartment building for almost five minutes before she had regained enough of her composure for him to lead her inside. “Now I guess you know why we’re glad my father isn’t around most of the time,” she croaked bitterly.

“Sydney, I am so sorry,” Michael told her; he didn’t know what else to say.

“It’s not your fault… I mean, he’s right, isn’t he?” she shook her head.

“No, he’s not. Not anymore… right?” Michael asked her. She nodded her head. “See,” Michael said, taking her in his arms once more. “Just forget about it Syd.”

“Okay,” she sighed into his shoulder. “I love you…”

“I love you too Syd,” he said, kissing the top of her head.



Chapter 20

In the next few weeks Sydney struggled to recover from the sting of her father’s comments. There was nothing she could do to deny them, because they were entirely true. She hadn’t let any of her boyfriends meet her father since college for reasons that were now painfully obvious and she hadn’t been in a serious, committed long-term relationship since then either. After moping around despite Michael’s attempts to cheer her up, which varied from jewelry to a funny movie, she decided that she had to prove him wrong and Michael was the exact way to do that.

Though she was still slightly fearful about being so committed to someone, she truly wanted to commit to Michael. Her fears were mostly of being hurt, but considering their relationship history, she had been the one doing the hurting to herself and to him. Plus, she knew that if she kept running from commitment every time it came up, she’d be running forever and she didn’t want that either. As difficult as letting go of her fears was, in the end, it was definitely worth it.

Before Sydney even realized it, she and Michael were celebrating their four month anniversary together. They had been having such a wonderful and perfect time together the months had passed more like days. Sydney didn’t mind, though; she was too happy.

By their fourth month together, Michael had practically moved into Sydney’s apartment. His reasons for this were twofold. First, he wanted to spend every moment possible with her. An additional reason was that Eric’s new girlfriend had a particular distaste for him (well, actually the distaste was mutual) and since she was spending time with Eric, Michael had to spend time away from Eric, which was the perfect excuse to be with Sydney. Because of his frequent overnight visits to her apartment, Sydney had given Michael his own drawer and closet room for some of his clothes, which he appreciated greatly.

Since it was the first time living with anyone of the opposite gender for both of them, their cohabitation caused some awkward and some tense moments between them at first. The strangest being the time Michael had woken up in bed beside Nadia and not Sydney, which perplexed him to no end since he was convinced he had gone to sleep beside Sydney.

It was very early on a Saturday morning and, when Michael opened his eyes, all he saw in his sleepy state was a mass of dark hair. Immediately, he thought the hair looked darker somehow, but attributed it to his sleepiness. When he opened his eyes the second time, though, he jumped nearly a foot. It was obvious the body beside him was Nadia and he was befuddled as to what she was doing there. “You’re not Sydney…,” he had said to her.

“No…,” she mumbled. “Too hung-over to care…”

Quickly, he slid from the bed and backed away from it in an almost fearful way. Nadia was dressed in jeans and a black top, obviously ‘clubbing’ wear. She was lying atop the covers with her head smashed into Sydney’s pillow. Even in his sleepy state Michael comprehended that she had probably stumbled in and simply collapsed without noticing or caring who else was in the bed. The only question was: where had Sydney gone?

Michael crept slowly out of the bedroom and found Sydney asleep on the couch. From the bottle of Tums beside her on the coffee table, Michael deduced that she probably hadn’t been feeling well and moved to the couch so she wouldn’t wake him. His deduction had been correct and, when Sydney awoke, she was horrified to realize what her sister had done, especially since Nadia had made it no secret that she found Michael easy on the eyes. They eventually sorted the situation out, of course it was later that day after Nadia’s hang-over had dissipated, but, in the end, Nadia promised never to crash in her sister’s bed again, especially if it was occupied by someone, namely Michael.

Around their fifth month of dating (fifth consecutive month that was), Michael decided that he was going to propose. This idea stemmed from Sydney taking care of him when he succumbed to a rather nasty cold and was utterly miserable. Sydney refused to leave his side for a moment though, constantly making sure he was alright and taking care of him. Of course, her close contact to him resulted in her catching his cold, but she didn’t even seem to mind that much. To return the favor, Michael took care of her after he was better, but he felt that, somehow, that just wasn’t enough. That’s where he got the idea to propose.

In the months since their rather catastrophic lunch with her parents, Sydney had been anything but commitment-phobic and Michael was fairly confident she would say yes to his proposal, especially when he made it clear he’d be willing to wait as long as she wanted before they actually married. The only problem was how exactly to do it. He thought about it for almost a week before the perfect proposal hit him. It would take creative planning, but he was convinced he could pull it off.


Every night, Sydney went to bed wearing the same outfit: a white tank top with navy blue shorts. Of course, she had more than one tank top and more than one pair of shorts and their styles differed slightly, but as a general rule they were the same. On the nights Sydney and Michael would make love before falling asleep, she’d never bother to put the tank top back on, but always put the bottoms on (which Michael found adorably amusing). In the mornings, though, as she was shuffling her way to the bathroom, she’d be pulling on her tank top, not really paying much attention in her still asleep state. From this stemmed Michael’s idea. He had to wait until she was asleep, of course, to pull it off, but he did it and, once it was done, he went to bed with a smile on his face, anxiously awaiting the next morning.

The next morning, a Saturday, like always, Sydney shuffled her way to the bathroom, not paying attention to anything as she pulled her tank top over her head. As she was washing her hands, she glanced up to the mirror and noticed something strange and blue on the front of her tank top. Since she wasn’t wearing her glasses or contacts, she couldn’t see it at first. She squinted her eyes and leaned closer to the mirror. In doing this, she was able to see what was on her shirt and, when she did, she gasped.

Using blue painters’ tape, Michael had formed the words, “Marry Me?” across her shirt, but backwards so it could be read in the mirror. He had originally planned on writing ‘Will you marry me?’ but quickly realized he’d run out of room if he used all four words, so the shortened version was enough, even if the question mark looked entirely deformed.

For a solid two minutes Sydney stared at her shirt in the mirror, tears welling in her eyes. Then, she ran from the bathroom and back into her bedroom where Michael was still asleep. It was still early, barely after seven o’clock, but Sydney didn’t care; she had to wake him. Michael, of course, had meant to wake up when she slid out of bed so he could see her reaction to the shirt, but unfortunately, her shaking the bed had failed to stir him.

Sydney launched herself up on the bed, straddling Michael’s body with her hands and knees, grin on her face as she shook the bed saying, “Wake up! Wake up!” He groaned but didn’t open his eyes. Sydney sat down on his stomach and continued to shake him.

“We just did this last night…,” he mumbled sleepily, not conscious enough to remember why he should have been waking.

“No, not that!” Sydney groaned. “Michael yes!! Yes!”

“Wha…?” he grumbled. Then, as he slowly opened his eyes and saw the grin on her face and then the backwards ‘marry me’ on her shirt he was wide awake within an instant. “YES?!” he asked, trying to sit up, which was difficult since she was still sitting on him.

“YES!” she repeated with a grin before attacking him with a kiss, causing him to be flattened onto the bed once more. “Oh god Michael I love you so much this is … so great!” she grinned. She stretched out her body to lay on top of him as she continued to shower his lips and chin with quick kisses.

“Glad you… like it,” he laughed.

“The shirt idea was so… original!” she laughed, unable to think of a better word. “How’d you come up with it?!”

He shrugged. “It just… came to me.”

“Well I loved it and I love you,” she smiled at him.

“I love you too,” he smiled back at her.

“Let’s get married next summer a year after we met for like the third time,” she laughed. “OH! and we could have pictures at that park!”

“Sounds perfect,” he said before kissing her.



Epilogue

“Ooohhh Michael, honey, come look at this!!!” Sydney cooed to him, emotion filling her voice.

“Syd,” Michael said in a tone that demonstrated his annoyance but also showed he was trying to mask it as much as possible so not to anger her. “Honey, if you call me in here every two minutes we’re never going to get our things packed up,” he sighed as he appeared in the doorway of their bedroom. The moment he saw the tears welling in his wife’s eyes, he knew his gentle-as-possible warning had been a mistake.

“You don’t care about me!” she choked out. “You don’t love me! I’m just your fat old wife.”

“No, no, no, no, no,” Michael said quickly, attempting damage control as he rushed to her side. “No, sweetie of course I care and I love you and you’re beautiful and sexy and perfect,” he said, stroking her seven months pregnant belly. “What did you want to show me?”

“Just this,” she sniffed slightly, holding up the item in question. A grin spread across Michael’s face when he saw the tank top with backwards lettering he had proposed with three years earlier.

Michael leaned down and gave her a long sweet kiss. “I love you so much.”

A smile broke through Sydney’s tears as she said, “I love you too… and I’m sorry I’m a nutcase.”

Michael laughed softly. “You’re not a nutcase,” he assured her. Then, he leaned over and kissed her expanded belly. “Love you too baby boy. Take your time coming out, though, we still don’t have a name for you,” he said with a pointed look towards his wife.

“Hey, I still have time!” she defended.

“I know you do, but we don’t have time to keep packing so slowly. The movers are going to be here in,” he paused to look at his watch, “two hours!”

“Alright, alright, packing,” she sighed as she tossed her proposal shirt into the box beside her. As Michael disappeared out of the room, she smiled and pressed her hand across her belly in the spot he had just kissed; she loved her life.

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