What About Me?

Author: Janet (SkyGirl5)

Genre: S/V, AU

Summary: Sydney and Michael have been best friends ever since college. Now, at thirty-two, Sydney is contimplating the path her life has taken: one purely devoted to her career, not to a family.

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

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Chapters 1-12 + Epilogue

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Chapter 1

Sydney Bristow quickened her walking pace as she glanced at her watch and groaned in disgust. The clicking of her heels against the cement sidewalk along the New York City streets was almost audible through the hustle and bustle of afternoon traffic as she pounded her feet along the ground, trying to walk as quickly as possible. She only had two more minutes to walk three blocks or she’d be late. She hated being late. Of course, this lateness wasn’t her fault. On her way out, she had received a phone call that her secretary told her was ‘urgent’. As it turned out, urgent was only Eric Weiss wondering if she’d be home for dinner, asking if he should order two pizzas instead of just one. She had yelled at him, which wasted another minute, before hanging up and running off to the elevator. She loved him, but sometimes she wanted to choke him.

Eric was Sydney’s roommate. The two of them lived with a third roommate, Michael Vaughn, in an expansive studio apartment, fifty floors above the busy streets below. Though it would seem awkward for three single people, one woman and two men, to be sharing an enclosed space, it wasn’t for them. They were all highly career driven people... well, Michael and Sydney were. Eric simply existed. Amazingly enough, none of them had ever been romantically involved with another one of them, they were simply best friends. Though there were some awkward moments, like the few times Sydney had caught Eric and his date on their couch in a significant state of undress or the time Michael had walked in the bathroom in search of a misplaced item while Sydney and her boyfriend at the time were sharing a shower, for the most part things worked for them.

By the time her watch painfully showed 3:01 pm, Sydney was running as fast as her heels would take her and skidding into the lobby of her building of destination. She raced to the elevator and tapped her foot impatiently as it crawled up fifteen stories before stopping with a ding. She raced out and down the hall, arriving at the meeting a painful five minutes late, apologizing profusely for her tardiness.

“It’s quite alright Sydney,” her boss, Mr. Sloane, told her. “Please continue with your presentation.” Sydney sighed with relief and began to pull her visual aids from the briefcase she had been lugging over her shoulder.

In her almost ten years with the Sloane Advertising Firm, Sydney had climbed her way quickly up the ladder. She lived a no-frills, all business lifestyle and because of the fact that she was willing to work late hours into the evening, she was promoted quickly within the organization. Though her job gave her a salary near six figures, because of New York City’s high expense lifestyle it was difficult for her to obtain an apartment to her liking. That’s where Michael and Eric came in.

Michael and Eric had already been sharing an apartment, or rather Eric had already been mooching off of Michael’s generosity. Sydney approached Michael with the idea of pooling their rent money and looking for a place big enough for the three of them. Michael loved the idea and was able to find a rent controlled apartment with more than enough room. They actually paid less rent each month, than before.

The three of them had met in college during their sophomore year. Sydney had just transferred into the school, was lonely and going to a party. She ran into Eric and Michael there, the three of them had too many drinks and ended up passed out in a dorm room together. Thus began their unusual friendship. To Sydney, the thought of dating Eric was preposterous and the thought of dating Michael was just... well, it wasn’t in her mind. She didn’t find him unattractive, quite the opposite in fact, it was just that they were stuck within the ‘friends’ barrier and it worked for them since neither of them were overly eager to jump into the ‘friends with benefits’ category, despite Eric’s encouraging.

They had been living together for almost four years and so far, things were perfect with the slight exception of the fact that they were all nearing their mid-thirties and not even close to getting married. But none of them seemed to mind. Michael and Sydney were too focused on their careers in advertising and Eric was too focused on his career as a bachelor.


“Excellent work Sydney,” Mr. Sloane told her at the conclusion of her presentation. “I’m sure the people at Sony will love that new campaign.”

“Thank you, sir,” Sydney smiled as she sat down in her seat, grinning at all her co-workers, who were less than amused by her.

“Well, in conclusion to our meeting today I’d like to take this opportunity to announce our new Vice President of Regional Marketing,” Sloane began. Sydney’s heart did a flip flop in her chest. She had been working to achieve that position ever since she knew it was available, but she thought the verdict wouldn’t come until the following week. She sat up straight in her seat and tried to keep a calm exterior while her heart thumped rapidly inside her chest.

“This person is an excellent asset to this company and I know that she will do a superb job as Vice President so... congratulations Sydney,” Mr. Sloane smiled down at her. A round of subtle applause went through the room as Sydney stood and shook her boss’s hand, reveling in her triumph.

Grinning, she went back to her office to pack up her things to move to her bigger office. She packed most of her things in one box and had her secretary carry her office plant and a picture of herself and her family that wouldn’t fit in the box.

“I hope this office is to your liking, Sydney,” Mr. Sloane smiled when Sydney walked into her corner, window filled office.

“It’s perfect, thank you very much,” Sydney smiled as she put her box down on the desk and shook his hand once more.

“Congratulations again,” Mr. Sloane said before leaving. Sydney sighed and walked over to the window, peering down at the busy streets below. Perfect, right? It was what she wanted, right? Then why didn’t it feel as good as she thought it would.



Chapter 2

For the rest of the afternoon, Sydney set up her new office and reviewed her new tasks for her Vice President duties. By the time it was six o’clock, she was exhausted. She left the office earlier than usual (typically she stayed until almost seven). Two subways and four blocks later, she was home.

“Hey ya Syd,” Eric greeted her in his typical early evening attire of boxers and a worn t-shirt. “Got pizza,” he mumbled through a mouthful of food.

“So I heard,” she grumbled remembering their earlier phone conversation. “Is Michael here?”

“Yup, just walked in a few minutes ago,” Eric told her.

“Okay,” she sighed as she went to her room to put down her briefcase and change out of her suit. Once dressed more comfortably, Sydney returned to the kitchen to see if there was anything suitable to eat since she wasn’t overly fond of Eric’s Extra Meat Lover’s pizza.

“Hey,” Michael smiled at her with his perfect grin. Immediately, Sydney felt better for some reason. “How was your day?”

“I got that promotion,” she said causally.

“Really?!” Michael asked excitedly. “Syd, that’s awesome! I’m so proud of you,” he smiled as he gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Oh yeah, that’s cool Syd,” Eric told her.

“Let’s celebrate! You want me to take you out to dinner?” Michael offered with a grin.

Sydney laughed softly and shook her head. “No, I’m too tired tonight. I’ll take a rain check though,” she winked.

“You got it,” he smiled.

“Heyyy,” Eric whined. “How come you never offer to take me out?”

“Because you’ve been kicked out of every restaurant in New York City,” Michael told him with a laugh. Sydney giggled as she made her way to the fridge to check the freezer for something edible to defrost.

“Not every one.... just a few,” Eric said quietly. Michael rolled his eyes.

“Syd, you cannot eat that. It’s been in there for like ever. Look at it, it’s white,” Michael grimaced as he examined an unidentifiable item Sydney was holding.

“You think it’s bad?” she asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Michael said before tossing it into the garbage, where it landed with a ‘thunk’.

“You guys can have some pizza,” Eric said as he held out the box that was practically dripping with grease.

Michael and Sydney exchanged grimaces. “Chinese or Italian?” Michael asked.

“Italian,” Sydney told him.

“Back in twenty,” he winked before grabbing his keys and wallet and heading out the door.

“Come on Syd, it's goooood,” Eric enticed as he waved a slice in front of her nose. Sydney grimaced and pushed it away.

“Eric, you’re going to have a heart attack before you're forty,” she sighed.

“Nah, I’m in good shape,” he said as he pounded his chest with his fists. Then, he nearly choked to death and doubled over while coughing and sputtering. Sydney just shook her head and walked away.

~*~

“Sooo how does it feel, Madam Vice President,” Michael smiled at her while they were sitting eating their dinner half an hour later.

Sydney just shrugged and continued to stab at her container of pasta with her fork. “Alright, I guess.”

“Syd come onnnn, you’ve only wanted this for like ever! Ok well, for like weeks,” he told her.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “My office has windows.”

“Well, see there you go. It’s all about location, location, location!” Michael smiled. She laughed. “Seriously Syd, what’s the matter? You seem sad...”

“No, I’m fine. Just tired,” she told him.

“Okay, I’m gonna go call my mom since she left me like twenty-seven messages in the past two days,” Michael said before kissing Sydney’s cheek and sliding off the couch. Then he put his empty take-out container in the trash and disappeared into his room.

Sydney, growing weary of Eric’s cursing at the baseball game on TV, took the rest of her meal into her own bedroom where she could have some peace and relative quiet. She was trying to figure out why exactly she wasn’t happy about her new position, but decided it was just because it was new and once she was used to it, everything would be fine.

She had been sitting on her bed, absentmindedly leaving through a magazine for about fifteen minutes before she heard a soft knock at the door. “Syd?” Michael asked quietly, his voice sounding distant.

“Come in,” she said. Glancing up at his shadowy figure standing in her doorway, she noticed the worry lines on his forehead were more prominent and he looked very solemn. “What’s the matter? Come sit down,” she told him as she moved over and made room for him on the bed, her inner best friend kicking in right away.

“I just talked to my mom...,” he began quietly as he walked into the room. “She has cancer.”

“What?!” Sydney croaked as tears sprung to her eyes and her heart broke for him.

“Yeah... she says it’s treatable but...,” he let his voice drift off.

“Oh Michael, I am so sorry,” Sydney sighed as she hugged him tightly. He hugged her back and buried his face in her shoulder. Sydney held him close for a few moments, stroking his back and running her fingers through his hair. “Is there anything I can do?” she asked softly.

“No... I just... I don’t...”

“I know,” she sighed as she kissed his cheek. When she did, she noticed it was moist from the few tears that had fallen. “Here, stay here tonight,” she told him before pulling back the covers of the bed. Michael said nothing, but climbed inside. Sydney rubbed his back and hugged him tightly before he finally went to sleep.



Chapter 3

The next morning, when Sydney’s alarm beeped harshly at six a.m., she was in no mood to get up. She rolled over on her side so that she was facing Michael and saw his eyes wide open, staring up at the ceiling. “Hey,” she sighed quietly. He turned his eyes to look at her but said nothing. “You going into work today?”

He sighed. “No... I think I’ll tell them I have a family emergency and go to my parent’s.”

“Okay,” she nodded. “If you need anything...”

“I know,” he said with a soft smile. She smiled back at him, kissed him softly and then slid out of bed, bound for the shower, ready to start another busy day.

~*~

Two weeks went by and Sydney still wasn’t any happier with her job. Partly, she blamed it on being preoccupied over concern for Michael and his family. Though they were assured that Amelia had over a 90% chance of full recovery because her cancer hadn’t spread, it was still very upsetting. Understandably, Michael was practically beside himself and Sydney was doing everything she could to lift his spirits, but it was practically no use.

Because of those events, Sydney began to reevaluate her life and realized that through she was content, she wasn’t happy. She’d find herself drifting off, just thinking about what exactly it was that she was missing or what would make her happier. All her life, her career had been her main focus. During school, she'd studied hours and hours into the night so she could graduate with a 4.0 or as close to it as she could get. Then, once out in the work world, she continued to educate herself, trying to get her masters’ degree, as she made her way thought every career obstacle thrown at her. It wasn’t that marriage or a family weren’t on her list of things to achieve in her life, they were. She wanted to get married, it just wasn’t priority. In fact, it was fairly low on her priority list at that time.

It was then she realized it. Perhaps that was the problem.

She certainly wasn’t getting any younger. At thirty-two-and-a-half, she was dangerously close to that all important thirty-five year old barrier, the one most women want to have children before they reach. And that was the thing, it wasn’t like she could just have children. She needed a husband. As part of her organized, business-oriented life, she saw marriage from the business point of view. Marriage was a contract. You couldn’t just enter into a contract without knowing anything about the other person. Research was involved. In this case, dating. She wanted to be dating someone for at least a year before marriage was even brought up. Then, once married she’d want to be married for another year before having children. All in all, that added up to be exactly at, if not after thirty-five.

She was dejected at this prospect for a few days before she realized something and was stunned she hadn’t thought of it before. What if she married someone she already knew and thus the one year pre-marriage period wasn’t necessary. A long lost thought crept back into her head; a thought from over twelve years prior; a thought she had forgotten about entirely.

“Michael stoooooop,” Sydney whined. “I don’t want to go out drinking. I want to stay here and mope.” She groaned as she clutched onto her pillow, even though her best friend was trying to drag her out of bed.

“Come on Syd, you only have one twenty-first birthday and you want it to be one you’ll remember and not because you sat here moping over Tony Asshole,” Michael told her.

“Asshole,” Sydney muttered. Tony, her boyfriend of seven months, had dumped her because he had cheated on her and on her birthday, no less.

“Come on, Syd. I’ll make it up to you,” Michael coaxed.

“How?” she asked curiously.

“I promise not to mock you if you do anything stupid tonight,” he grinned. She grumbled. “Fine, you won’t get your pretty present unless you come.”

“You got me something pretty?” she asked, her voice slightly lighter.

“You’ll never know unless you drag that pretty ass of yours out of bed,” he told her.

“Fine, fine. Leave so I can change,” she sighed as she slid out of bed.

~

“Men suck...,” Sydney slurred later that night after her third shot of tequila. “Seriously they suck... just SUCK!”

“I know, I’ve heard. About a hundred times,” Michael said dully into his beer bottle.

“Hey,” Sydney said as she wagged a sloppy finger at him. “You made me come out... I never said I’d be happy.”

“True,” Michael sighed.

“I’m going to die alone.”

“No you’re not,” he assured her.

“Yes I am. I am! No one will ever love me!” She moaned.

“Sydney that’s not true. I love you,” he told her.

“Eh,” she waved her hands at him. “That just assa friend. I’m going to die an old maid with CATS... I hate cats.”

“You’re not going to die an old maid. You’re only twenty-one years old,” he told her with a laugh. She grumbled. “Okay, I’ll tell you what. If we’re both thirty-three and unmarried, I’ll marry you.”

“Really? You’d do that?” she grinned as she sloppily stroked his face.

He batted her hand away from poking him in the eye. “Yeah sure.”

“You’re pretty,” she giggled.

“No more tequila,” he told her seriously.

“Noooooooooo tequila!”

“Oh my god...,” she sighed aloud. That was it. That was her solution. Michael. She loved him; he was her best friend. After all, isn’t that what your husband should be? Your best friend? Besides, she did find him attractive. Yes, perfect. The more she thought it over, the more perfect it became. She would marry Michael. It wasn’t like he had anyone serious in his life, besides his thirty-third birthday was only a few weeks away.

By the time Sydney decided she would bring it up, she was completely convinced that there was no way Michael would ever turn her down. In her mind it was the perfect solution. So, one Saturday afternoon when the three of them were watching a hockey game on TV, she brought it up. “Hey Michael, remember my twenty-first birthday?” she asked.

He grunted in response.

“No, seriously, you remember?”

“Why?” he asked rather shortly in the tone he had been using ever since he found out about his mother’s illness.

“Well remember what we talked about? How if we were thirty-three and unmarried we’d marry each other? I know we’ve never discussed it since then but... I mean you were serious, right? Because you’re almost thirty-three and...,” She let her voice drift off as he gave her a strange look. “What?” she asked.

“Are you serious?” he asked with confusion. Sydney shrugged and nodded. “What... I don’t want to marry you,” he said rather harshly before muttering under his breath, shaking his head, and turning back to the TV.

Sydney felt as though a knife had gone right through her heart. She didn’t even know what to say. All she could do was walk away so he couldn’t see her cry.



Chapter 4

Eric watched Sydney quickly scamper off to her bedroom and shut the door hard. Then, he turned and gaped at his other best friend. “DUDE!” he exclaimed in a shocked tone.

“What?” Michael asked.

“That was so mean,” he said in disbelief. He would have never imagined Michael could have been so cruel, especially to Sydney.

“What?” he asked.

“THAT! ‘I don’t want to marry you,’” he mocked his friend’s tone. “I mean that was a really weird question but that was mean! Even I wouldn’t be that mean!”

“Well what the hell was I supposed to say?” Michael muttered.

“Um, not that,” Eric said. Michael rolled his eyes. “Dude, you made her cry.”

Michael swallowed a lump in his throat as the guilt set in. “I did?” he asked quietly. Eric nodded. “Damn it...” Michael always felt entirely awful when he made women cry, especially Sydney, even though that was a very rare occasion. He got off the couch, walked over to Sydney’s room and knocked softly. “Syd? Syd, I’m sorry, can I come in?”

Inside the bedroom, Sydney quickly sniffed back all her tears and hid the two tissues in her lap underneath the bedspread. “Uh yeah,” she said in the strongest voice she could manage. Michael slowly opened the door and walked in.

“Syd, I’m so sorry. I never meant to sound that mean, really I didn’t.”

“It’s okay,” she shrugged even though it really wasn’t.

“No, no it’s not. It’s just... my mom and everything... I’ve been having a rough month and...”

“Michael, it’s fine. I caught you off guard. It’s my fault,” she sighed.

“Syd, the thing is...,” Michael began as he reached out for her hand. Sydney gulped; this wasn’t a good sign. “I remember what we said on your birthday... well actually, I had kinda forgotten about it,” he laughed slightly. “But, I remember now... and the thing is, I can’t exactly see you as my wife. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love you and you’re my best friend but...”

“I’m more like a sister?” she suggested half-heartedly.

He laughed softly and slid closer to her. “Not quite like that, but I just never thought of you in that way.”

Sydney nodded slowly. Then, stupidly, she had what she thought was a brilliant idea. He had never thought of her in that way but it doesn’t mean he couldn’t, right? Maybe he just needed some convincing. A preview, so to speak. So, she turned to him, grabbed him by the front of the shirt and smashed her lips into his.

Sydney and Michael had never really kissed, at least not like that. Sure there was their kiss on the cheek greeting, and an occasional, but very brief, kiss on the lips, but this was meant to be a kiss. Unfortunately, Michael didn’t exactly kiss back. Sydney pulled back and looked away, blushing as he gaped at her.

“Um... okay...,” Michael said slowly.

“Well, I just thought if we... you know, you might... I dunno,” she sighed as she covered her face with embarrassment. “You didn’t feel anything, did you?”

“Sorry Syd,” Michael said sadly.

“No, no it’s fine... it’s not your fault,” she told him. It was true; she didn’t want him to force feelings for her just so he wouldn’t hurt her. That wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted him to be happy.

“Okay... I’m gonna... go...,” he said unsurely. She gave a rather high pitched ‘uh huh’ and waved him off. He walked away slowly, feeling awful that he had hurt her, but not sure what exactly to do about it.

“So...,” Eric said nosily when Michael emerged from the bedroom.

“She kissed me,” Michael told him quietly.

“And... judging by the fact that you’re not in there stripping, it didn’t go so well,” Eric said.

“Right,” Michael muttered. “I just... I dunno... she’s Syd... I mean, you know what I mean, right?” he asked.

“Sure, I guess,” Eric said. “I mean, if she was flat out asking me to have sex with her, I wouldn’t say no...,” Eric told him. Michael rolled his eyes. “But that wouldn’t happen. And it’s not like I’m going after her. She’s Syd!”

“Exactly!” Michael said.

“Right...”

“Yeah...”

~*~

For the next few days, Sydney avoided Michael as much as she possibly could. She didn’t want to face having any awkward moments after the situation she had created. The more she thought about it, the more she couldn’t believe how insane she had been. Michael had never once even so much as hinted that he wanted anything more. He never even joked or insinuated about it. He’d always call them ‘pals’ or ‘buds’ or ‘friends’ or something like that. Never had he once implied that he even liked her. He probably wasn’t even attracted to her in the least. The more thoughts that filtered through her head, the more she loathed herself for potentially ruining the best thing in her life.

Michael noticed Sydney’s distance from him and knew exactly why she was behaving so oddly, but he didn’t know what to do to fix it. He always wanted to fix her problems, except in this case, her problem was him. Even he really didn’t know how to move on from ‘I don’t want to marry you’. In a relationship situation, romantic relationship that is, it would have resulted in certain break up, but he couldn’t break up with Sydney. Other people might have stopped being friends but Michael knew there was no way he could live without her in his life, so he had to make her see that what happened was no big deal and they should just move on from it.

One evening when she came home from work, Michael was waiting on her bed so there was no way she could avoid him. “What... what are you doing?” she asked cautiously.

“I want you to stop avoiding me,” he told her firmly.

“I’m not avoiding you,” she denied weakly.

“Yes, you are. Syd, it’s no big deal. I’ve moved on; you should too. We all do crazy things sometimes and it doesn’t matter. Just... don’t worry about it because I’m not.”

“Okay,” she sighed. “But I’m sorry I went insane.”

“Don’t be,” he smiled. “I already knew you were insane.”

“Ha, ha,” she said dully.

“Besides, I wanted to talk to ya about something.”

“Oh?” she asked.

“Yeah... well, see I’m up for this promotion at work...”

“Oh Michael that’s great!” Sydney grinned.

“Yeah,” he laughed softly. “But the bosses want me to go out to this play with them, you know.... I guess to see how I fit in with them or something, anyway, I really, really don’t want to go without a date and...”

“You want me to go,” Sydney finished for him. He smiled innocently at her. She sighed and took off her suit jacket, tossing it on the bed. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go with Michael. They often were each other’s dates to company functions. The problem was she wasn’t a huge fan of plays and he knew that. “What play and when?” she asked him.

“The second Friday in December and I forget the name of the play, but I can find out.... it’s that new one that just opened up.”

“Ohh, way to narrow it down,” she said sarcastically.

“Shut up,” he laughed. “I’ll find out, but please? Please? Please?” he begged as he grabbed her hand and kissed it repeatedly.

“Fine,” she groaned. “Now quit slobbering on me.... ew!! Gross!” she whined as he licked one of her knuckles. She yanked her hand back and wiped off his spit onto his shirt.

“Thanks Syd,” he smiled as he stood and kissed her forehead.

“Yeah, yeah now get out of here so I can change.”



Chapter 5

“Syyyyyyyd, come on!!” Michael groaned as he looked at his watch for the twentieth time in five minutes. If they were going according to his schedule, they should have left ten minutes ago. “Being late is not the impression I want to make!”

“Jeez okay fine, looking like this isn’t instantaneous you know,” Sydney said as she came out of her bedroom still buckling her shoes.

“Whoa, Syd looks hot,” Eric commented from the couch.

“Thanks,” Sydney rolled her eyes as she brushed one of her curls from her eyes. She was wearing a brand new Armani black dress that she had gotten specifically for that occasion since she wanted to do anything she could to impress Michael’s bosses and help him get the promotion he desired.

“You look gorgeous,” Michael smiled at her.

“Thank you,” she sighed, relieved he wasn’t angry because of her tardiness.

“Ready?” he smiled as he held out his arm.

“Yea- oh! My shawl!” she called before running back into her room. Michael groaned. “Got it, got it, I’m ready now,” she smiled.

“Good,” Michael smiled. They rushed down the elevator and out to the street where grabbing a cab became a task in itself, as it always was after dark in the city. Finally, they got one and Sydney shivered as she climbed inside, trying to pull her skirt away from getting caught in the door. Michael gave the cab driver the address of their destination and they were jerked out into the night traffic.

“You know, it’s funny...,” Michael began to laugh fakely making Sydney immediately suspicious. “My boss... thinks I’m bringing my wife tonight...”

“What?!” Sydney screeched.

“Syd, please,” he begged.

“Michael Vaughn!” she scolded. After her moronic proposal from not quite a month prior, this was a horrible idea.

“Come onnn Syd, please! I’d do it for you if you asked,” he pleaded.

“I don’t understand Michael, why do these people think you’re married?!”

“Well... they were asking how many tickets I needed and I said two and then the one guy was like oh, you’re bringing your wife, right? And I just couldn’t say no because I want them to like me,” he whined.

“Oh yeah, they’re going to love you when they find out you lied about being married,” she muttered.

“SYYYYD!” He sighed. “Please, come on.”

“Fine,” She groaned. “But won’t they notice we’re not wearing wedding rings?!”

“Syd, they’re guys. They notice nothing. Besides, the one guy asked if it was the same woman I brought to the party this summer and I could say yes because I brought you,” he smiled. Great, she thought. “But just in case, I brought this,” he said as he dug in his pocket and held something out in the palm of his hand.

It was dark in the cab, so Sydney was only able to see by the lights flashing past the windows. But, when she saw what he had, she gasped. “Michael, why are you giving me an engagement ring?”

“Because, you need it to make it look like we’re married!” he exclaimed as he thrust the ring into her hand.

“Where did you get this anyway?” she asked as she struggled to pull off one of her gloves so she could put the ring on.

“My mom gave it to me a when she got sick. It was my grandmothers... she wanted me to have it.... I dunno,” he sighed.

“Oh... and what if it doesn’t fit?” she groaned as she tried to slide it on.

“Oh no, doesn’t it?” he asked with concern.

“Well... barely. It’s a little snug, but it’s ok I guess.” She sighed as she moved her fingers around, making sure they still had circulation once the ring was on.

“Good.”

Sydney held up her left hand to the cab window and tried to see what the ring looked like. “Ohhhh Michael, this ring is gorgeous!” she exclaimed when she caught sight of the antique, white gold ring.

“Really? You like it?” he asked sounding somewhat surprised. “I thought it was kinda... old fashioned looking and ugly.”

She laughed softly. “No, I love it.”

“Good. So just remember we’re supposed to act like we’re married,” he told her.

“Ohh ok, pooky schnuckums,” she said in a nauseating voice as she reached over and grabbed his hand.

He just stared at her. “I said act like we’re married, not like we belong in a mental ward!”

“Sorry,” she laughed.

“Yeah, yeah, just be normal, ok?”

“Absolutely,” she smiled.

Once at the theater, Michael helped Sydney from the car and put his arm around her as they walked inside. “There’s my boss,” he whispered to her while gesturing towards the corner of the room. Sydney nodded, recognizing the man from that summer’s party she had attended.

“Michael! Wonderful of you to come!” the man called to Michael across the room.

Michael plastered on a huge fake smile and dragged Sydney along with him as he walked over to his boss. “Of course,” he said, shaking his hand. “I’d like you all to meet my wife, Sydney.”

Sydney ignored the warm fuzzy feeling she felt from the words ‘wife’ and ‘Sydney’ put together in a sentence from Michael and plastered on her own fake smile and all business exterior. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Mr. Dixon.”

“Yes, of course. This is my wife Dianne,” Mr. Dixon introduced them. After a few more minutes of chitchat, the lobby lights dimmed, indicating it was time for the theater patrons to take their seats. Sydney and Michael made their way up the crowded stairs towards the first level balcony, where their seats were located. Once seated, Michael took Sydney’s left hand in his and laced their fingers together. Sydney looked over at him and they exchanged smiles before focusing their attention on the stage in front of them.

~*~

“The play wasn’t that bad, was it?” Michael asked Sydney when they were on their way home.

“No, I suppose not. I still just don’t like plays; they’re stupid,” she told him. He rolled his eyes at her. “On the bright side, I think your boss liked me, us.”

“Yeah, I think he did.” Michael smiled. “Thanks again for coming.”

“No problem. Oh here,” Sydney said as she reached to take off the ring Michael had given her. “Uh oh....”

“What? Is it gone?!” he asked in a panic.

“No, it’s stuck!” she exclaimed frantically as she yanked at it.

“Oh,” he laughed. “Your hand is probably just swollen. No big deal; you’ll get it off eventually.”

“What if it’s stuck on there forever?!”

“Then we’ll just have to cut your finger off,” Michael told her seriously. Sydney looked less than amused. He laughed. “Just run your hand under cold water genius. Or use soap or lotion.”

“But then the ring will get gunky,” Sydney told him with a grimace.

“Yeah, because it can’t be washed...”

“Oh, right,” she laughed.



Chapter 6

The next morning, Sydney awoke with Michael’s grandmother’s ring still stuck on her finger. She ran her hand under cold water for almost five minutes and tried to pull the ring off, but it was stuck. Panicking slightly, she covered her finger with lotion and tried again. Still, the ring was stuck. Realizing she had wasted almost twenty minutes on it, Sydney gave up so she wouldn’t risk being late for work.

Upon walking into her office, the ring still on her finger, Sydney’s secretary let out a very large squeal. “You’re engaged!! Why didn’t you tell me! I didn’t even know you were seeing anyone! How did it happen?! How did he propose?! Who is he?!” she demanded.

“Whoa ok, calm down,” Sydney told her. “I’m not engaged.”

The secretary’s face fell. “But...”

“I was... trying on my friends ring and it got stuck. I can’t get it off,” she said quickly. After all, it wasn’t a total lie.

“Oh,” the secretary laughed. “Did you try soap?”

“Lotion,” Sydney sighed. “Didn’t work.”

“You could always stick your hand in a freezer for a while.”

“And lose all my fingers!” Sydney exclaimed at the odd suggestion. Her secretary just shrugged before returning to her desk.

For the whole day, Sydney played with the ring on her finger subconsciously trying to get it off. Finally, in the middle of the afternoon, she was able to pop it off rather painfully. For a moment, she hesitated, trying to figure out what to do with the ring. She couldn’t lose it or Michael would kill her and putting it back on was certainly not an option. Instead, she opted for putting it on her necklace and wearing it that way until she went home.

~*~

“Here,” she said to Michael as she placed the ring in the palm of his hand.

“Oh you got it off?” he asked.

“Yeah after a few hours of trying,” she laughed.

“Uh huh... well I’ll have to remember that this ring only fits on the fingers of very dainty women, so it's not clamped onto some other poor, unsuspecting girl’s hand,” he laughed.

“Well, no, not dainty, just normal. I have freakishly large man-hands,” Sydney groaned.

Michael laughed. “You do not have man-hands.”

“I do have man-hands!” she exclaimed as she held them up. “They’re freakish!”

“They’re pretty,” Michael assured her.

“What’s going on?” Eric asked.

“I have man-hands.” Sydney frowned.

“Oh yeah, you do. It’s freaky too,” Eric shuddered. Sydney squeaked with indignation and Michael hit him with a cereal box. “Hey! I just call it like I see it.”

“Idiot,” Michael muttered.

~*~

At Christmas, Sydney returned to her parent’s Connecticut home for the first time since the previous Christmas. It wasn’t that she didn’t like spending time with her family, she did (in moderation), but she was so busy with work that she didn’t have enough time to travel back and forth. Plus the fact that she didn’t own a car didn’t make her traveling any more convenient. That day, riding on the train, she was actually very excited to be returning home because she would be able to see her four month old nephew for the first time (other than the in the pictures that had been emailed to her). Her younger sister, Nadia, had married that January making her parents extremely suspicious of the rapid birth of her son, but once they had held their tiny grandson, all their anger disappeared.

“Sydney, you look wonderful,” her father, Jack, greeted her at the train station when he picked her up on Christmas Eve.

“Thanks Dad. How are you?” she asked as she gave him a hug.

“Good, your mother is driving me insane, but good,” Jack told her.

She laughed. “What’s Mom doing?”

“Obsessing as usual.” He groaned.

“Over Nadia?”

“Yes. She wants everything perfect for Patrick’s first Christmas.”

“The one he won’t remember.” Sydney laughed.

“Exactly,” Jack sighed.

After the fifteen minute drive, Sydney followed her father into the house and was immediately hit with a warm blast of Christmas cheer. Christmas was her mother’s favorite holiday so she went all out. Green and red ribbons lined the stairs, poinsettia plants were everywhere, as well as Santa and reindeer figurines. “Ohh Sydney!” her mother, Irina, exclaimed with joy the moment she saw her eldest daughter. She ran forward and pulled Sydney into a smothering hug.

“Merry Christmas Mom,” Sydney choked out through her mother’s hair that had covered her face.

“Oh yes Merry Christmas!! Come, you’ve got to see the baby! Nadia and Derek ran to the store for me but they left Patrick here!” Irina practically squealed as she grabbed her daughter’s hand and pulled her into the family room where there was bassinet set up in the corner. Sydney walked over to it after setting down her things and let out a soft sigh.

“Oh he’s adorable,” she smiled.

“Go ahead and pick him up. He just woke up a few minutes ago,” Irina told her.

“Mom, you know I have no idea how to hold a baby,” Sydney laughed at how pathetic she sounded.

“Go sit,” Irina gestured towards the couch as she scooped up the infant in her arms. Once Sydney was seated, Irina laid Patrick in her arms.

“Oh he’s big,” Sydney laughed as she adjusted Patrick’s weight across his lap. “Hey buddy, I’m your Aunt Sydney... but I guess you can’t say that, can you?” Sydney laughed softly as she danced her fingers across Patrick’s belly. Patrick grinned with two cavernous dimples and giggled at her.

“Isn’t that just the most adorable noise?” her mother smiled.

“Yes,” Sydney laughed.

“Mom! We’re back! And they didn’t have any cranberries left... oh Sydney!” Nadia exclaimed as she shoved the grocery bags she was carrying at her husband and rushed off to hug her sister.

“Hey,” Sydney laughed as she hugged Nadia. “Patrick is just so adorable I could eat him up.”

“Isn’t he?” Nadia grinned.

“Yeah, you won’t be getting him back. I’m keeping him.” Sydney smiled.

Nadia laughed. “Wait a few years until he’s in his terrible twos and then you can have him.”

~*~

Sydney had such a wonderful Christmas, that she was incredibly reluctant to leave on the day after Christmas, mostly because of Patrick. She absolutely loved him, every inch of him, and practically clung to him the entire time she was there. It was then she decided up on her next ‘brilliant’ idea, she didn’t need a husband to make her happy, she needed a baby.

One might think that a baby and husband went hand in hand, but Sydney thought otherwise. After all, she didn’t need a husband or a boyfriend, just part of him. A part that, luckily, could be obtained without the actual man. So, shortly after the new year, Sydney began researching the process of choosing a donor and then actually getting pregnant.

“Whatcha doin’, Syd? You’ve been looking through that folder for a few nights now?” Eric asked her one evening while the three of them were eating dinner.

“Picking sperm,” she said casually as if it was ‘looking a sweater’ or ‘shopping for shoes’.

Michael and Eric exchanged glances and, thinking she was joking, burst out laughing. “What?!”

“I’m picking sperm or rather a sperm donor,” Sydney clarified, not understanding why they were so amused.

“For what?” Michael asked.

“I’m going to have a baby,” she told them.

“YOU’RE GOING TO WHAT?!” Michael and Eric exclaimed in unison.

“I’m going to have a baby,” she repeated.

“Wh... why?” Eric asked.

She shrugged. “Because I want one. So I need to pick one of these guys who is like... the best to me or something.”

“Lemme see this,” Eric said as he snatched one of the papers while Michael just stared, too shocked to speak. “6’1”, 200 pounds... neurologist – these guys could totally be lying!”

“I guess...,” Sydney said slowly, having never actually thought of that.

“Seems like a snow job to me,” Eric commented.

“Well I have to pick someone!” Sydney exclaimed.

With that, Michael finally spoke up. “Well, what about me?”



Chapter 7

“WHAT?!” Eric shouted.

“What?” Sydney asked quieter, not sure that she had heard him right.

“What about me, use me,” Michael said in a sincere tone.

“Hold the frick on here a moment,” Eric interrupted, noticing that his two best friends were quickly losing their minds. “Why do you need sperm at all? Can’t you just adopt? No, wait, better question... HAVE YOU LOST YOUR FREAKIN' MIND?!?!!? You, Sydney Bristow, career woman extraordinaire – why the hell do you want a baby!?”

“Because,” Sydney sighed. “I’m alone and unhappy and work just... isn’t doing it for me anymore. Over Christmas I was playing with my nephew and he’s just so perfect that I want one too. And to answer your first question, I don’t want to adopt because I want to have my own baby. I want to be pregnant. I want to do the whole thing,” she told him.

“So you can be moody, bitchy and fat?!” Eric asked in disbelief.

Sydney ignored him and turned to Michael. “Were you serious?”

“Well... yeah... I mean, think about it. If you do the sperm donor thing your kid will never, ever know his or her biological father and, like, how sad would that be? Plus, then when the kid got older it might want to find it’s father or what if you got married then you’d have to explain that your husband wasn’t the father. It could just get ugly. But if you use me... it could be kinda cool,” he smiled. “Besides, you wouldn’t have to do it alone. I’d help you. We could do it together.”

A huge smile spread across Sydney’s face. “I’d like that.” Michael grinned back, reached across the table and took her hand.

Eric bashed his head to the table in defeat. “You people are idiots!” Sydney and Michael ignored him.

“Oh Michael, are you sure about this? Once you do it, you can’t back out. We’d have a kid... a baby... forever!” Sydney said, suddenly feeling nervous herself.

“Yeah, I know,” he smiled. Forever, that made him feel content. “Let’s do it.” Sydney squealed happily, leaned over and kissed him quickly on the lips.

“I’m going to go put this stuff away and get you the other stuff to look at,” she grinned as she scampered from the table. Once she was gone, Eric reached over and smacked Michael across the back side of his head.

“JESUS! What was that for!?” Michael groaned as he rubbed his head.

“You’re a fuckin’ idiot. Would you SNAP OUT OF IT?!” Eric shouted as he tried to hit Michael again, but Michael ducked his head out of the way.

“What’s the matter with you!”

“Would you listen to yourself. You’re having a baby with Sydney. HELLO! You’re going to be like married without the sex and that’s the only good part of marriage!” Eric exclaimed.

“You’re crazy. We’re not going to be married,” Michael told him.

“Uh oh yeah, let’s see. You’ll have a baby together... you’ll help each other take care of the baby.... you live in the same house, but in separate bedrooms and you love each other. That’s like... the definition of marriage!” Eric shouted. Michael just shook his head, not believing what Eric was saying.

“Okay, think about this. Say you have the baby with Syd and like two years later... we’re still living here, the four of us, and you go on a date. You bring the date back up here and Syd’s standing in the kitchen, kid on her hip. And you’re like ‘oh look, it’s my best friend Sydney and our child. They live here’. Your date will run for the hills and you’ll sound like a FREAK!”

Michael paused for a moment and thought. Eric did have a point, perhaps for the first time in his life. Did he really want to be marrying or dating someone other than the woman who would have his child? Definitely not. But, did he want to have a child with Sydney? Definitely. All of a sudden, he was confused. Had he been wrong when he told Sydney that he didn’t want to marry her? He wasn’t sure.

“Michael, do you want to see this?” Sydney called from her bedroom.

“Yeah, just a sec,” Michael called back before tossing his empty plate in the sink and walking over to Sydney’s room despite the cautioning glance Eric was giving him. He paused before going inside. What the hell did Sydney want to show him? For a moment, he had a completely surreal flash of her lying on the bed wearing lingerie, ready to ‘have’ their baby, and he broke out into a cold sweat. Pushing that thought from his mind, he cautiously opened the door and was relieved to find her fully clothed, looking through a pamphlet. “What’s up?” he asked, his voice cracking slightly.

She looked up at him and smiled. “Well, we need to talk about how we’re going to do this.”

“Do... this?” he croaked, his heart racing once more.

“Yeah...”

“How do we do it?” he asked.

“Well, if you’re asking that, I don’t think I can help you,” she winked suggestively.

He gulped, really not appreciating her teasing at that moment. “Ha...,” he tried to laugh casually.

“No, come here and see,” she held out the pamphlet.

“Isn’t that going to scar me?” he asked cautiously, staying far away from the pamphlet.

Sydney rolled her eyes. “It’s a laboratory and a Petri dish, retard.”

“Oh, ok,” he sighed with relief as he sat on the edge of the bed.

“See they take the eggs from me and then combine them with the sperm before putting them back in,” she told him.

“That’s actually pretty cool,” Michael said as he examined the paper she had handed him.

“Yeah, it’s great for couples who can’t have kids the natural way or... don’t want to or whatever the case may be,” Sydney said.

“So... you really want to do this?” he asked.

She nodded. “I talked to my work about it too. They said me taking a few months maternity leave wouldn’t be a problem at all. I could even do some work from home or work half-days if I needed to.”

Michael nodded slightly, then looked down towards the floor and was silent for a few moments. “Why are you doing this, Syd?” he asked very seriously.

“Because I want a baby and I’m not getting any younger,” she told him.

“Yeah, I know but... I mean, you’ve only been thinking about this for a few weeks. Don’t you think you’re rushing in to it?” he asked.

“Michael, are you trying to back out?” Sydney asked sadly.

“No, no,” he said quickly. “I’m just making sure this is what you really want.”

“It is,” she told him. She sounded very convinced so he just smiled and nodded.

“So... this is expensive, right?” Michael asked her.

She nodded. “It’s over ten thousand dollars.”

“Wow!” he gasped in surprise. She nodded. “Well... I guess I should pay half then.”

“It doesn’t matter, you don’t have to.”

“But I want to.” He smiled. “We’re going to be in this together.”

Sydney giggled and smiled at him. “I guess we are... not very traditional, huh?”

“Eh, tradition is overrated.” He shrugged.

“Yeah... I guess.” Sydney sighed. Then she swallowed hard, knowing the thing she was about to say would be very difficult, but had to be said. “There’s just one thing.... I don’t know if it will work.”

“You mean because the embryo’s might not attach?” he asked.

Sydney laughed softly. “Look at you using the lingo.”

“Well, I did read the pamphlet... for like two seconds,” he laughed.

“Right... well, that’s not why... I mean... god, okay,” she sighed as she closed her eyes and rubbed her hands over her face. “I’ve been pregnant before... but I miscarried.”

Michael was utterly stunned to the point where he couldn’t even begin to form words. In the thirteen years that he had known her, he had absolutely no idea that she had been pregnant. He didn’t even know how to process the fact that first, she was pregnant, second, she miscarried, and third, she apparently hid it from everyone.

Noting Michael’s silence, Sydney decided to continue on with her explanation. “I never told anyone. I mean, no one, not even my parents, well, especially not them... it was a long time ago. I just... I wasn’t sure if it was something wrong with me, you know? Like there is a reason I miscarried at seven weeks.”

“Oh Sydney...,” Michael sighed as he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her. “I am so sorry.”

“It’s ok,” she told him. “I mean... I didn’t even know I was pregnant until one day I thought I was going to bleed to death and I went to the doctor. I’m over it. It’s just something that happened in life.”

Michael nodded slowly. “Do... I mean, when was this?”

“College,” she said simply.

“Oh,” he nodded. “Did... you didn’t tell the father?”

“No, no, definitely not. He... he wasn’t really...,” she let her voice drift off as she turned slightly pink.

Michael was confused. His best friend certainly wasn’t someone who would have a one night stand and he was seriously scanning his brain through all the boyfriends she had had. Then, it hit him. She had transferred to their school in her sophomore year. Maybe that was the reason. “Oh Syd, I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s ok, I mean... I can’t really see Eric being an- oh...” she gasped and cut herself off at her slip. She hadn’t meant to say his name.

Michael’s brow furrowed. “What?! ERIC!? ERIC!!!!!!!! Eric was the father?!”



Chapter 8

Michael was fuming. Livid. Irate. Seething. Eric. Eric and Sydney. Eric had slept with Sydney. Sydney had slept with Eric. And both of them had failed to mention it to him.

“Well... sort of...”

“Sort of?! SORT OF?! How can someone sort of be the father of your baby?!” he shouted.

“Michael, stop yelling at me! It was college, you know! It was... remember the night we met? We were all piss drunk at that party?” she asked him.

Michael rubbed his temples. “Yeah... what does that have to do with anything?”

“That was it. I woke up the next morning... I was completely naked on that couch in your's and Eric’s room. I didn’t even remember it – having sex. But I know I didn’t have sex before then – not right before then anyway and I didn’t have sex afterwards either. So... seven weeks later when I found out I was pregnant, I just... assumed it was that night.” Sydney shrugged.

Michael was sure he was having some sort of aneurism. His head was spinning, trying to remember something, anything about that night, but it was all a haze. “Okay... wait... you don’t remember having sex with Eric?”

“No, I don’t remember having sex with anyone that night,” Sydney told him honestly.

“Syd come on, I know beer goggles can do a lot of stupid things to people but... sleeping with Eric?!?!? Are you sure you were conscious at the time?” Michael asked.

“Oh come on Michael, Eric is a lot of things, but a rapist?”

“Good point...,” Michael sighed. “Jesus... I just.... AHH!” He grunted as he stormed out of the bedroom and out into the kitchen where Eric was still eating. “YOU HAD SEX WITH SYDNEY?!” he blurted out.

“MICHAEL!” Sydney gasped.

Eric began to choke. “Wh-what?”

“You... sex... her!” Michael managed as he waved his arm in Sydney’s direction.

“I most certainly did not! Why would I have sex with her?!” he asked in offense. “I mean... no offense Syd...”

“None taken,” she said weakly.

“Sophomore year, the night we met her....,” Michael said to him calmly even though he was still angry, but quickly becoming more hurt than upset.

Eric looked as though he was deep in thought for a moment before laughing softly. “Oh yeah... by the time I came back you guys were already all... gross,” he shuddered. “I just ignored ya and went to bed.”

For a second, no body reacted. “Hold on a second...,” Michael said, trying to wrap his mind around it. “You’re trying to say that I had sex with Sydney!?”

“Uh, duh?” Eric said.

“You knew?!” Sydney gasped.

“You guys didn’t know?!” Eric asked with equal confusion. Sydney and Michael shook their heads. “Oh jeez... I just thought you guys never brought it up because you wanted to pretend it never happened... I mean, it’s not like I wanted to relive it,” Eric shuddered.

Michael and Sydney exchanged looks. Neither of them knew what to say. “I.... I need to go for a walk,” Michael said finally before he left the apartment.

While he was walking, Michael decided that he needed some time to calm down after those stressful twenty minutes and wrap his mind around the changes happening in his life. He needed time to reflect without Sydney or Eric pestering him. So, he decided it was best if he avoided them for a few days. Not an easy task considering they all lived in the same, not exactly expansive, apartment, but luckily he had a three day business trip in Chicago starting the following afternoon.


The whole time Michael was in Chicago, he thought, even during the times he was supposed to be working. He thought and thought until he had driven himself absolutely insane because he kept coming back to the same point. He had been afraid that sleeping with Sydney would destroy their friendship, something so important to him that losing it would mean losing a big part of himself. But, they had slept together and nothing had changed. Granted, neither of them remembered sleeping together, and the sleeping together occurred before they were even close friends, but still, it happened. Another thing he realized was that he wanted to have a child with Sydney, he did. Not only that, but he wanted everything with Sydney. A life. A marriage. A family. A shot to see if it would work, if nothing more. So, when he arrived home, he went to talk to her.

Michael knocked softly on her bedroom door. It was open a crack and he could see her sitting up against her headboard, reading something. “It’s me,” he said quietly.

“Come in,” she said as she sat up and set her magazine aside.

Michael walked in and shut the door behind him. He smiled softly. “I got that promotion.”

“Oh Michael that’s great,” Sydney told him with a smile. “I’m really happy for you.”

“Thanks,” he smiled as he walked over to her and sat beside her on the bed. “I’m sorry I freaked out.”

Sydney shook her head and waved her hand. “Don’t be. It’s perfectly understandable. I was freaked out too.”

“Yeah... I love you Syd,” he told her.

She smiled and rubbed his arm lovingly. “I love you too.”

“So... did you still want to... you know...,” he said rather quietly, avoiding bringing up the subject he knew he needed to but was almost shy about.

“What? Have a baby?” she asked. He nodded. “Well... yeah, I guess. I mean, if you still want to.”

“I do,” he told her.

She giggled softly and took his hand in hers. “I do too.”

Michael smiled at her, brought his free hand up, and stroked her face. “You’re so beautiful.” Sydney went to smile, but stopped. There was something different in his voice that confused her. She was about to furrow her brow and ask him what was going on, when he leaned his face into hers. Before either of them knew what was happening, they were kissing each other, lying back on Sydney’s bed and attempting to rid each other of their shirts. Neither of them were thinking at all until a few moment’s later when Sydney’s bedroom door burst open.

“Guys what do you- HOLY SHIT you’re having sex!” Eric laughed, sounding more amused that scarred.

“ERIC!” Michael gasped as he sat up and quickly covered Sydney up with one of their discarded shirts so Eric wouldn’t see her in her bra. Eric just stood in the doorway laughing.

“ERIC GET OUT!” Sydney shouted. Eric didn’t leave so Michael took off a shoe and threw it at him. It hit his shoulder; he whined and walked away, closing the door behind him.

Michael groaned and slid off Sydney, sitting down on the edge of the bed. Sydney reached for her shirt and crammed it back over her head. “What are you doing?” Michael asked.

“Well, it’s not like we’re going to continue! Eric’s probably out there with a glass pressed up against the door listening and trying to picture something he saw on the Playboy channel!” Sydney exclaimed.

Michael grimaced. “That’s disgusting... but probably true,” he sighed as he began to button up his own shirt.

Sydney got up off the bed and began walking towards the door. “Aren’t you coming?”

“In a second...,” he squeaked. Sydney gave him a strange look. “Would you just go!”

She laughed as she went out into the other room and found Eric with pillows over his hears. “What the hell are you doing?” Michael asked him when he came out of the bedroom a moment later.

“I thought you guys we’re having sex...,” Eric said.

“Clearly not,” Sydney told him.

“Then what the hell was with the nakedness?” Eric asked.

Sydney and Michael exchanged cautious glances. “We... it was...,” Sydney stammered.

“We don’t know,” Michael finished for her. Sydney nodded.

“Whatever,” Eric rolled his eyes.

“Why did you burst in there anyway?” Sydney glared.

“Uh, because I was asking if you guys wanted me to order dinner and I had just seen Michael go in there and I didn’t naturally assume you’d be going at it,” Eric told them.

“Oh...,” Sydney and Michael sighed.

“Why do I have such weird friends?” Eric muttered as he walked away towards the kitchen.

“We’re not weird!” Sydney insisted.

“Uh, yeah, you are,” Eric told them.

“How are we weird?” Michael asked.

“Well, let’s review. There was the baby thing. The fact that you two are like perfect for each other and everyone can see it and talks about it behind your backs – including your parents, by the way – and yet you two can’t seem to see it at all. And now this weird sexual tension thing. Do us all a favor and just have sex and get it over with, please? I’ll be in my room. I promise I won’t walk in on your again,” Eric said before he walked away.

Sydney and Michael just looked at each other in silence for a moment. “That’s ridiculous,” Sydney laughed.

“Right, absolutely. We... we’re not like that,” he said unconvincingly.

“Of course not,” Sydney shook her head. Then, she took a step towards Michael and nervously placed her hands on his stomach. “So um...”

“Yeah,” he sighed as he brought his lips down to hers. Sydney stood up on her toes so she could wrap her arms around his neck and pull herself as close to him as possible. “Wait, wait,” Michael breathed heavily when he pulled out of their kiss.

“What?” Sydney whispered, her eyes fluttering open and looking up at him.

He sighed heavily. “I lied.”



Chapter 9

Sydney was befuddled. One minute her heart had been fluttering as she kissed Michael, the next he said that he lied to her. “What?” she asked, trying to focus her full attention on him after being so hazy.

“I lied,” he repeated.

“About what?” she asked.

“When you kissed me... after you asked if I wanted to marry you... I told you that I didn’t feel anything, but I lied,” he told her.

Sydney dropped her arms from around his neck and took a step back, glaring at him. “W-why? Why did you lie?”

“I was scared,” he told her honestly. “I was scared... I didn’t want to ruin our friendship, which is what I was convinced we’d do if we kissed or ... made love,” he said quieter. She looked unconvinced. “I didn’t want to lose you!”

“Then you should have said that!” she shouted back. “Instead... instead you made me feel like a fool and that you... you hated me!”

“Syd!”

“Okay, not hated but... I don’t know! I.... I need some time.” She sighed as she turned away, went into her room and shut the door.

Michael rubbed his forehead with his hands and collapsed down onto the couch, attempting to suffocate himself with a pillow. He loathed himself.

~*~

When Sydney emerged from her bedroom the next morning, she found Michael asleep on the couch. She quietly crept over to him and watched him sleep for a moment. She decided then that there was no way they would ever work out their problems if they both kept running scared. They needed to talk it out, no matter how painful or awkward it would be. She knelt down and shook his shoulder softly. “Michael... Michael you need to get up...,” she said quietly, but he barely began to stir. “Michael you’re going to be late for work.”

“Wha? Oh... thanks Syd,” he mumbled sleepily.

“Sure,” she smiled. “We need to talk this evening, okay?”

“Okay,” he yawned.

For the rest of the day, both Sydney and Michael were preoccupied with what exactly they were going to talk about that evening, so much that neither of them got very much work done.

“Hey,” Sydney said quietly when she saw Michael in the kitchen, string something in a pot on the stove.

“Hey, I’m making spaghetti,” he told her.

“Oh good... is Eric here?” she asked.

“Nah, he’s got a date.”

“Oh no, does that mean we need to hide our valuables?” Sydney cringed recalling the last time Eric brought someone, who turned out to be a klepto, home.

“No, I don’t think so,” Michael laughed.

“Okay... I’m going to go change,” she told him. He nodded and watched her walk off.

The first part of their dinner, they ate in silence, glancing up occasionally and sharing a nervous look before turning back to their respective plates of food. Finally, it was Sydney who spoke. “So... we need to figure out what’s going on here...”

“You’re right,” Michael sighed. “I was scared of messing things up with you by taking us to a romantic level but... the more I think about it, the better I think it will be. I mean maybe Eric’s right for once in his life. We are sort of perfect for each other...”

“Yeah,” she smiled. “I guess we are.”

“So...”

“So...,” she laughed.

“Where does that leave us on the baby front?” he asked.

“You mean, should we try to have one the old fashioned way?” She grinned.

Michael laughed. “Well, perhaps, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.”

“You’re right, as long as we’re doing this we should get married first... that way my parents won’t freak...again.” Sydney rolled her eyes recalling the drama involving her sister.

“Wow, now you’re really getting ahead of yourself,” Michael told her. Sydney looked slightly worried. “I think...,” Michael smiled as he reached for her hand across the table. “We should go on a date first.”

Sydney smiled and giggled softly. “A date would be a good idea... but we just ate dinner.”

“We could... go out,” he suggested.

“It’s snowing outside.”

“Oh... well, we could watch a movie here,” he told her. “And... basically remain ourselves... so maybe Eric was right,” he laughed.

“What do you mean?” Sydney asked.

“Eric said that we were like already married because we love each other but sleep in separate bedrooms which, apparently, is his definition of marriage...”

Sydney laughed. “Well then, I guess we are. Except we’d kiss now.”

“Mm well, I like the kissing,” he grinned as he leaned across the table and kiss her lips softly. “Crap...”

“Put your tie in the sauce?” Sydney smiled knowingly.

“Yes,” he grumbled.

“I’ll get it,” Sydney laughed as she pulled him by the tie towards the sink so she could scrape off the pasta and sauce now pathetically attached to it.

“Damnit... I liked this tie...”

“I’ll get you a new one. This one is ugly,” she laughed under her breath.

“Ugly! It’s cool!” he insisted.

“Michael, it has beer on it,” Sydney told him very seriously.

“And your point is...”

“You should be shot for wearing it at work!”

“The guys love this tie,” he insisted.

“Guys meaning... Eric?” Sydney smiled. He rolled his eyes. “Alright, take it off.”

“Tryin’ to get me to strip, Bristow?” he asked with a cheeky grin.

“Maybe I am,” she smiled slyly. He slipped off his tie, looped it around her neck and pulled her in for a sweet kiss. “You know, I kinda like that,” she giggled.

“I kinda like it too,” he told her. “Come on, let’s go see if there’s a movie on TV.”

“Okay,” she smiled.

They curled up on the couch together and watched a movie until eleven. When Sydney got up, she started to shuffle towards her bedroom, but Michael caught her around the waist. “Oh no you don’t.”

“What?” she asked. Michael just smiled and pulled her in the direction of his bedroom. “Michael...,” she said warningly.

“I just want to hold you,” he told her with a smile.

She giggled softly. “Well, would you mind holding me after I change into my pj's?”

“Yeah, I suppose that would work,” he laughed.



Chapter 10

The next morning, Michael’s alarm went off loudly at 6 a.m. and both Sydney and Michel groaned since it was a Saturday. Michael reached over Sydney, trying not to crush her, as he turned off the alarm. Then he settled back down and hugged her tightly. “Sorry,” he whispered.

“’sokay,” she mumbled as she turned over and snuggled up to him.

Two and a half hours later, Michael awoke and considered trying to fall back to sleep, but instead decided to watch Sydney sleep. He gently combed his fingers through her hair as he watched her eyes flutter gently while she dreamed. Lying there, he wondered why he had been so stupid as to think that furthering his relationship with her would ruin them. Clearly, they could only get better.

Fifteen minutes later, Sydney stirred and began to stretch. “Hi,” she smiled up at him.

He leaned down and kissed her softly. “Hi,” he smiled.

She giggled as she put her arm across his chest and buried her face in his neck, kissing the underside of his jaw and giving him chills. “Is it good that this is quite possibly the best way I’ve ever woken up in my life?”

“Very good,” he told her. “Because I feel the same way.”

“Good,” she smiled. Then she rolled over on her back and began to look around the room. “I think.... I think your room is bigger than mine.”

“It is... so?” he asked.

“What about your closet?” she asked.

“Why?” he asked.

She turned over to face him and smiled. “We should share a room.”

“Yeah?” he grinned.

“Uh yeah... because I’m never sleeping apart from you again and running back and forth across the apartment would be stupid.”

“I quite agree... but we should move into your room.”

“Why?”

“Because this room shares a wall with Eric’s room,” he told her.

“Ah, but if we have a baby we’d need a room close by... so we can use Eric’s room as a nursery and move Eric into my room,” she told him. She had been thinking about their room arrangements in the apartment when she was debating on having a baby or not, trying to figure out where exactly the baby would go.

“Wow... that’s brilliant,” Michael laughed softly.

“I know,” she grinned. “Maybe I should go get my clothes now.”

“Noo, wait a second,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her. “Too comfy to move just yet.”

“That’s true,” she sighed as she leaned into his embrace. “Michael...”

“Hmm?”

“Didn’t I go to bed wearing pants?” she laughed when she realized that somehow, they had gone missing. Michael reached down and felt her bare legs and she laughed harder.

“Did you do that?” he asked her.

“NO! You did!” she insisted.

“I did not!” he defended.

“Well, they didn’t just take themselves off.”

“Maybe they did,” he told her seriously. She laughed again. “Have you ever lost your pants during the night before?”

“I don’t think so... socks I’ve lost...”

“We’ve all lost those,” he said.

“Okay... okay I got them,” she said while fishing around for them underneath the covers. She put them on and then slid out of bed while Michael groaned in protest. She smiled over her shoulder at him and disappeared out of the room. A moment later she returned with a very large armful of business suits and dresses that she slammed down on the bed.

“And where are you planning on putting those?” he asked.

“Uh, closet?” she suggested.

“Good luck,” he laughed. She walked over, opened his closet and gasped.

“Michael Vaughn this is HORRIBLE!” she groaned at the expensive suits crammed in and shoved haphazardly on hangers. “You cannot live this way.”

“And yet I do,” he told her. She rolled her eyes and began to fix it. Ten minutes later, she had made enough room to fit half of her clothes inside, but then the closet was full. “Now what?” Michael asked as he slowly got out of bed.

“I don’t know... we’re going to have to get one of those thingies.”

“Thingies?” he asked.

“Yeah, those clothes rack thingies... that’s only like half my stuff.” She sighed.

“Then you have far too many clothes,” he told her seriously.

“I’m a woman; it’s in my nature,” she smiled. He rolled his eyes. She grinned. He leaned over and picked her up over his shoulder. “Where are we going?”

“To get the rest of your stuff... and breakfast,” he told her.

“Oh ok,” she giggled.

After they ate pop-tarts, Michael and Sydney went into Sydney’s room to collect the rest of her belongings. “Hello... what do we have here,” Michael grinned when he opened a drawer and held up a ball of lace.

“NO! NONONO!” she shouted as she bounded over her bed and tried to yank him away from her underwear drawer. Michael held her back with one arm while going through the drawer with the other.

“Jeez Syd, you’ve got some interesting stuff in here....”

“Nooo, stop please!” she whined while laughing.

“What in the living hell...,” he commented when he held up a very large pair of underwear. “Grannie panties, Syd?”

“No they’re not!” she laughed while turning red and snatching them from him. “They’ve got like a girdle thing in them. To make me look thinner,” she explained.

“Because you’re a cow.” He rolled his eyes. “Oohh wear this,” he grinned as he held up a red lace bra.

“Ok fun over,” she sighed as she shut the drawer.

“That was fun.” He smiled.

“Uh huh... perhaps we should go and find Michael’s underwear drawer...,” she said while backing towards the door.

Michael shrugged and folded his arms over his chest. “Go ahead,”

“Okay!” she said as she took off running across the apartment.

“NO! DON’T! WAIT!” he called as he tried to chase after her, tripping over a box of her belongings on the way.

In his room, Sydney was frantically opening drawers, searching for the one she was looking for. “Ah HA! Oh my god,” she laughed as she pulled out the first item, black briefs. “You have panties!”

“No! I do not have panties!” he shouted as he tried to grab them from her, but she was quickly pulling them out of reach. “Give it!” he whined.

“Oh no,” she smiled. He grumbled. “Payback’s such a bitch,” she grinned before turning back to the drawer. She was almost disappointed, finding mostly black or blue boxers and a few ones with pictures or amusing sayings on them, until she found the final item tucked in the back corner of the drawer and burst out laughing so hard, she could barely stand. “Oh... my god.... can’t... breathe,” she choked out through her laughter as she dangled the bright red thong with pink hearts between her thumb and forefinger. Michael’s face quickly turned to match the color of the item in question. “Can’t see... crying...,” Sydney continued to laugh until she had collapsed on the floor and Michael had snatched it from her.

“If you must know, it was a gift,” he told her timidly.

“From who?!” she coughed from the floor.

“Some girl I was dating... she apparently found guys in thongs really hot...”

With this comment, Sydney began pounding the floor with her fist, still in hysterics. “You’re... killing me.”

“Yeah well, once she gave me this I broke up with her,” he told her firmly, shuddering remembering that horrifying episode.

“And yet you kept it?” she sniffed, wiping tears from her eyes.

“No, I forgot about it.”

“Please,” she sighed as she crawled to her feet. “Throw it away. Oh man... that was funny.”

“I could throw it away...,” Michael said slowly.

“What do you mean ‘could’!? You’re not allowed to wear that,” she told him seriously.

“No, I mean... we could give it to Eric,” he said.

Sydney nearly threw up her pop tart. “Because... he’d wear it...?”

“NO, no, no I mean we could hide it somewhere in his room so that when he has a date over...”

“... she finds it,” Sydney finished his brilliant plan.

“Exactly,” he grinned.

“Oh this is so mean, but so funny,” Sydney laughed as she followed Michael into Eric’s empty bedroom. They stashed the thong in his bedside drawer and then quickly left the scene of the crime. “Oh if only we could catch her reaction on video...”

“Nah,” Michael shook his head. “His reaction would be better.”

“Very true.” Sydney smiled. “Now let’s get the rest of my stuff and stay OUT of my underwear drawer!” she warned him.

For the rest of the morning, the room switching continued until Sydney’s room was completely empty. When Eric came home at lunch, he passed Sydney room (which was by the door) and gasped. “Holy shit... what happened here?”

“I moved,” Sydney told him.

“To where?” Eric asked.

“His room,” she said while pointing to Michael, who was smiling.

“Aw damn it,” Eric groaned. “Now I’m gonna have to hear you all getting freaky though that wall.”

“We could... kick you out...,” Michael suggested half seriously.

“I’ll get ear plugs,” Eric sighed.

“Very good,” Michael smiled.

“Anyway... I’m just here to shower and change, and then I’m off again.”

“Where are you going?” Sydney asked him.

“Date,” he grinned.

“Again?” Michael asked.

“I’m still on it man,” Eric winked. Sydney and Michael exchanged eye rolls.


“Okay, okay I’m goin’,” Eric said ten minutes later on his way out. “Now you guys can have sex as loud as you want – just remember to use Lysol on the kitchen counters when you’re done.”

“That’s disgusting!” Sydney called after him, but he had already left. “Honestly... he thinks we have no self-control!”

“Of course... do we?” Michael asked seriously, looking over at her. She gave him a stern look. “I mean, yes, of course we do.”

“Right.”

“But, uh, just so I know... how long exactly will we have to have self-control for?” he asked cautiously.

“Michael, stop. You know that jumping into a physical relationship would be very ill-advised at this point. We’ve only been technically together for like... 18 hours. Give it time,” she told him.

“You’re right, you’re right. This is going to be perfect,” he smiled as he placed his hands gently on her hips and pulled her close to him.

“Perfect,” she repeated. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Syd.”



Chapter 11

For the rest of the day, Sydney and Michael were together doing housekeeping-type things like laundry, dusting and vacuuming. Then they decided they’d make a cake for dessert.

“Michael, what are you doing?” Sydney laughed as the knife he was using to spread icing on the top of the cake began spreading it on the back of her hand.

“Oh, sorry, is this wrong?” he grinned.

“No, no, it’s ok. But you missed a spot,” she smiled as she took a finger full of icing and spread it down the full length of his nose, giggling the whole time.

“Oh you think that’s funny, do you?” he challenged as a glob of icing fell from his nose and onto the counter, causing Sydney to laugh harder. “Well then...,” Michael said as he picked up the bowl of icing and held it menacingly over her head, intending to give her an icing bowl hat.

“You wouldn’t!” she gasped. He grinned. “Oh Michael, don’t! Getting icing out of my hair would be awful!”

“You’re right,” he sighed as he lowered the bowl. “Although I could help you...hey!” He grunted when she punched his shoulder. “Fine, fine,” he sighed. Then, he stuck his own finger in the icing bowl and filled up the two dimples on her cheeks with icing. “Adorable,” he proclaimed.

“Yeah, I bet.” She laughed as she wiped the icing away from one of her dimples.

Eric, who had walked in a moment earlier and watched most of the icing-fest, groaned in disgust. “You two are nauseating. I’m going to have to move out or risk this,” he gestured between them, “killing me.”

“Eric, if I do recall, you were the one that encouraged this,” Michael told him as he used a paper towel to wipe the icing from the bridge of his nose.

“No,” Eric held up his hand to correct them. “I encouraged you to have sex, not be completely nauseating with the icing and cuteness.”

Sydney smiled. “Well, I guess you are kinda cute,” she giggled as she tickled Michael’s tummy softly.

He laughed. “You’re kinda cute too.”

“Oh sweet Jesus, somebody give me a gun,” Eric whined melodramatically as he collapsed on the sofa.

Sydney giggled; Michael rolled his eyes. “Hey Eric, what do you pay here for rent each month? Fifty bucks, if that... you want to know what kind of apartment in New York City you can get for fifty bucks a month?” Michael called to him.

“Point taken. I’ll be shutting up now.”

“Good,” Michael laughed. “Oh CRAP!”

“What?” Sydney asked.

“Oohh, I forgot I have this thing tonight... this cocktails thing with my boss, sort of celebrating my promotion. He told me to bring my wife along,” Michael cringed as he looked at Sydney.

She shook her head and laughed. “Boy, did you dodge a bullet. What would you have done if you had to bring somebody else? ‘Oh this is my other wife, did I mention I’m originally from Utah?’,” she mocked in a deep tone.

Michael laughed. “No... come on Syd, please – I’ll be your best friend.”

“You already are,” she laughed.

“I’ll be your boyfriend.” He smiled innocently.

“You already are,” she repeated.

“I’ll make-”

“I beg you not to finish that sentence,” Eric interrupted him.

“Hey, I wasn’t going to say anything dirty... although...,” he grinned suggestively at Sydney.

She laughed and shoved his chest. “Slow down there, buddy. So, what time do I have to be ready?”

“Seven,” he smiled at her.

“Alright,” she smiled back before she disappeared into their room to try and find something to wear while Michael cleaned up the icing mess they had made with a ridiculous grin on his face.

“Dude, you are so full of it,” Eric laughed at him.

“What?” Michael asked innocently. “I’m happy.”

“Yeah, noticed,” Eric commented. Michael rolled his eyes. “Seriously – who was right? Come on, who was right?” Eric coaxed while he poked Michael’s shoulder.

“You were right, Eric,” Michael said dully.

“That’s right! Now... I think I’ll take some of that cake as payment,” Eric said as he reached out for some icing, but Michael hit his hand away. Eric whined.

“Get your own cake.”

“Noo come on, we share!” Eric pouted. “Besides, I’m bringing my date over tonight and I have to have something to give her after a night full of lovin’.”

Michael swallowed hard, trying to banish that image. “Oh yeah, you can make comments like that but I can’t.”

“It’s different.”

“How?”

“You and Syd are both my friends – I don’t need a visual. Besides it’s just weird,” Eric shuddered.

“Whatever.” Michael rolled his eyes. Then, he almost burst out laughing, recalling the ‘present’ he and Sydney had left in his room earlier that day, but he managed to bite his lip and stop himself from smirking. It was going to be an interesting evening for Eric and Michael was almost sorry he was going to miss it.

~*~

“Ready?” Sydney smiled from the door of their bedroom once she was completely ready but Michael was still fixing his tie.

“Yeah almost, I- whoa, you look sexy,” he said when he glanced over and saw her.

“Yeah? It’s not too much?” she asked as she spun around, looking down at herself.

“Well, it could be a problem if my boss wants to jump you.”

“Ha, ha,” she rolled her eyes.

“Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go, beautiful.” He smiled at her.

“Wait... don’t I need the ring?” she asked.

“Oh...,” he said as he stopped walking. “Um... no forget about it. Nobody will notice and if they do we’ll just lie and say it’s getting cleaned or you hurt your finger and didn’t want to wear it.”

“Michael, did you ever think that this whole web of lies thing will eventually get you into big trouble?” Sydney asked.

“Uh... yeah... I did. But it’s too late to fix it now.” He shrugged. “Besides, we’re in the advertisement business... it’s our job to lie.”

“You’re horrible,” Sydney laughed.

“I know,” he grinned.

~*~

“Michael, I need to talk with you about something important,” Mr. Dixon said during their meeting that evening.

“Oh?” Michael asked.

“Yes... I’m thinking about opening a branch office to the firm up in Connecticut. Now its not finalized or anything, it’s just and idea I’m playing with. Now, I know you’re from that area and I think that you would be perfect for running that office. Now, this is just hypothetical at this point but, would you be interested?”

Michael didn’t know what to say. How was it possible that he was just offered another promotion while out celebrating the first? He looked over to Sydney, who appeared to be stunned as well. “Well... I um... that sounds like a wonderful opportunity sir, and I’m flattered you thought of me but... well, we’d have to talk it over. Sydney also works in the city and-”

“Really? What do you do, Sydney?” Mr. Dixon interrupted Michael.

“I work in advertising actually,” she told him.

“Really? Where?”

“Um, the Sloane Firm,” she said timidly, knowing that they were a competitor of Michel’s firm.

“Competition! Well, you could bring her with you! I’m sure you’d be a welcome addition, Sydney. Say... did you two ever think about having children?” he asked them.

Michael and Sydney exchanged smiled and Michael reached over and took Sydney’s hand. “Well... we were discussing it, actually...”

“Wonderful! You know, the city is no place to raise kids. They need yards and such. Even more reason to go back to Connecticut.... well, no more about this now. It wouldn’t be finalized until almost a year from now, but I’m just putting it out there! How about another round of drinks?”

~*~

“Well that was.... interesting,” Michael laughed on their way home.

“Yeah, really. He offered you another job? How wild is that?!” Sydney laughed.

“Totally... I don’t even know what to think about it... but you know what’s an interesting thought?”

“Hmm?”

“Us working together,” he told her.

“Oh yeah,” she smiled. “That could be kinda cool...”

“Could be?” he asked, sounding offended.

“Well, no I mean... yeah, it would be fun, but we’ve never worked together in that type of situation...”

“We could be great,” he grinned.

“What are you saying... you want to do the Connecticut thing?” she asked curiously.

“Ohh I dunno.. I mean, we don’t even know if it’s happening... I just wouldn’t totally dismiss the idea,” he told her.

“Yeah,” Sydney smiled as she linked her arm with his and rested her head against his arm.

“Ohh, before I forget... Eric’s date was coming over tonight, so she might find our little gift,” Michael grinned.

Sydney laughed loudly. “So what do we do? Deny, Deny, Deny?”

“That was my plan.” He smiled.

Once they arrived home, Eric met them at the door, fuming. “I’ve got a bone to pick with you two,” he hissed.

“Who? Us?” Sydney asked innocently, trying desperately not to smile.

“Why?” Michael asked.

Eric held up the red thong. “Recognize this?”

It took all of Sydney’s self control not to burst our laughing. “No,” she choked as she walked past him. “Branching out your wardrobe, Eric?”

“NO!” he hissed. “LeAnne and I are in my room all-”

“Spare us,” Michael grimaced as he held up his hand.

Eric glared. “Anyway, I open my drawer and this thing pops out. Of course I don’t know what the hell it is, so I hold it up and she starts laughing before she bolted for the door. YOU DID THIS!” he accused them while pointing with the hand holding the thong causing it to fly onto the floor.

“We did not,” Sydney insisted.

Eric just continued to glare. “I know you did this,” he muttered before walking away. Once he was gone, Sydney and Michael burst out laughing.

“That was so mean.” Sydney laughed.

“But it was fun,” Michael grinned. “Okay, I’m gonna get ready for bed...”

“Okay, me too...” Sydney sighed as she followed him. Once in their room, Michael began stripping out of his clothes, causing Sydney to blush. “I’ll just...,” she said quietly as she went to walk out the door.

“You don’t have to.” He smiled at her.

“Michael...,” she groaned.

“Syd, come on, it’s ok. We’re dating, remember? And, naturally, I assume you’ll be doing the same,” he grinned.

Sydney laughed loudly. “You’re such a horny guy.”

“Nooo never! Come on Syd, live a little,” he said before tossing his shirt at her in a strip-tease-like fashion.

“MICHAEL!” Sydney gasped. “I’m leaving now.”

“Party pooper,” he grumbled at her.



Chapter 12

For the next two months, Sydney and Michael were blissfully happy. As it turned out, what they were both searching for in their lives was each other. Every evening after work, they’d curl up in each other’s arms (much to Eric’s dismay), feeling more content then they thought possible. They still had yet to cross the physical barrier in their relationship which had made for a few interesting moments between them since they were sharing the bedroom. But, both were slightly hesitant (though Sydney more than Michael) to disregard the fact that they were trying to make their relationship last and rushing things wasn’t what they wanted.

Fortunately for both of their libidos, they had each received a gigantic project at their respective works, so long working hours and stressful nights were involved, which left them both too exhausted to even think about anything else.

“You know what we should do?” Michael suggested during the first week of April, after both their projects were completed.

“Sleep forever?” she suggested.

“Yes, well sort of. We should just go away for a weekend. Not away away, but... book a suite at the Plaza and just like have a little getaway.” He smiled at her.

Sydney looked up at Michael, turning slightly pink, trying to decide if he was really implying what she thought he was implying. He smiled and nodded encouragingly at her and she blushed deeper, suddenly feeling nervous. “Um... yeah... Yeah let’s do that,” she said firmly.

“Yeah?” he asked, trying to contain his excitement and nerves.

“Yeah. When? Next weekend?” Sydney asked. Michael nodded. “Okay,” she smiled.”

“You people are such freaks,” Eric commented from behind them. “Most people just have sex in a bathroom... honestly...”

“Shut up! At least we didn’t have thong panties in the drawer beside our bed!” Michael retorted. Sydney burst out laughing as Eric turned pink and walked away. “I’m so glad we did that.”

“Yeah, that was funny,” Sydney grinned. “Not quite as funny as when I found it in your drawer.”

“Yeah yeah...,” he muttered. “Ohh you know what we could do... we could use next weekend as an early happy birthday to Sydney.”

“Nooooo,” she groaned. “No birthday.”

“Why no birthday?”

“Because I’m ooooooooooooold,” she whined.

“You’ll be the same age as me, goofball.”

“And that’s OLD!” she exclaimed. He rolled his eyes.

~*~

The following Friday after work, Sydney and Michael took a cab down to the Plaza. When they arrived, they found that their hotel room wasn’t quite ready yet and they needed to kill at least half an hour. Sydney suggested walking around the nearby Bergdorfs and Michael begrudgingly agreed.

“Ohh, isn’t that hideous,” Sydney commented quietly at a hideous, gaudy, extravagant necklace they saw displayed.

“Yes, very, who would buy that?” Michael asked, almost laughing.

“Dunno,” she shrugged as she took Michael’s hand and pulled him away. “Ohh, we should shop for you.” She smiled.

“Uh no.”

“Whyyy?” she pouted.

“Because I don’t need any more Armani suits, thank you very much.”

“Ohhh,” she groaned. “How about a tie? Come on, it’s the least I can do. You’re paying for the hotel.”

“Yes, but it’s your birthday. Besides, the tie would probably cost as much as the hotel room,” Michael told her.

“What are you kidding? Not even close. The tie would only be like a hundred bucks, come on.” Sydney smiled as she pulled him towards the elevator.

“Oh this is perfect, it totally brings out your eyes,” Sydney smiled as she held up what seemed like the hundredth tie to Michael’s shirt.

“That’s what you said about the last one,” he grumbled.

“What’s the matter? Aren’t you having fun? How do you shop?!”

“I pick up the one that’s displayed with the suit,” he told her honestly. She rolled her eyes in disgust.

“Ok seriously, which one do you like better?” she asked as she held up two ties.

“The left one.”

“Do you really mean that or are you just saying that so we can leave?”

“Both.” He smiled. Sydney groaned.

After buying the tie, Sydney and Michael returned to The Plaza and found that their room was ready. As they rode up the elevator, Michael put his arm around Sydney’s back and gave her hip a tiny squeeze. She laughed softly and rested her head against his shoulder, her heart already beginning to beat rapidly. When she saw the room, Sydney gasped. It appeared Michael had gone all out. The room was lit by dim candle light, there were rose petals sprinkled on the bed and a dinner was already set up for them, complete with chocolate covered strawberries and champagne.

“Happy Birthday,” Michael whispered in her ear before kissing her temple.

“You... you are just perfect, aren’t you?” Sydney giggled as she walked over to examine the meal waiting for them.

“Well, I try.” He smiled.

“Mm okay, these strawberries are officially way too good!” Sydney explained after she bit into one. “I’m going to eat them all!”

“Well, I got them for you and that way I can laugh when you complain about being fat.” He grinned.

“Hey!”

“Kidding,” he smiled.

“I was kidding too – you HAVE to try one!” she insisted, pushing the bowl towards him.

~*~

“So...,” Michael said nervously after room service had removed their dinner and it was just the two of them, alone.

“So...,” Sydney echoed with a smile.

“The... bed looks nice,” he said with a nervous laugh.

Sydney laughed and rolled her eyes. “Well, at least you’re subtle.”

“Ohh, subtle? I can be subtle...,” he said softly as he walked over to her. He ran both of his hands down the side of her face and down her neck, where he brushed her hair off her shoulders and to her back as she shut her eyes and sighed softly. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered against her cheek so his breath filtered across her ear, giving her chills.

“That... that was good,” she squeaked.

“Mmmhmm,” he smiled before kissing her.

~*~

Then next morning when Michael awoke, Sydney was stirring beside him. He leaned over and kissed her lips softly, letting her know that he too was awake. She kissed him back and pulled herself closer to him. “Well good morning to you too.” She laughed softly when they broke.

“Morning,” he mumbled through a yawn. Then, he traced his fingertips down one of her arms, which was lying across his chest. “I love you so much, you know that?”

“I did actually,” she giggled. She was about to speak again when Michael's cell phone rang and interrupted her. He groaned and reached to the nightstand, where it was laying.

“Oh it’s my mom, I should...”

“Go ahead,” Sydney waved her hand towards him casually.

Michael sat up and flipped open his phone. “Morning Mom,” he yawned.

“Oh Michael, did I wake you?”

“No, you didn’t. How are you feeling?” he asked her.

“I’m feeling wonderful. The doctor said that yesterday would be my last treatment since I’m in remission now,” she told him.

“Oh Mom, that’s wonderful.”

“Yes... so what are you up to this weekend?” she asked.

“Uh...,” he laughed nervously for a moment, making up a plausible lie. “Just hanging out with Sydney... AHH, quit it!” He hissed down at Sydney who was poking him; she giggled.

“Excuse me?” his mother asked.

“Sorry, that was just Sydney prodding me with her ice cold fingers.”

“Hey!” Sydney whined.

“Oh, well I’ll let you go then.” Amelia laughed. “I just wanted to tell you that your father and I are coming into the city next weekend and we’d love to have lunch with you.”

“Are you sure you feel up to that?” Michael asked in an overly concerned tone.

“Michael...,” his mother warned.

“Yeah, yeah, next weekend, just call me.”

“I will, sweetheart. Love you. Bye.”

“Love you too, Mom. Bye,” Michael said before hanging up. “You’re horrible,” he groaned to Sydney.

“Sorry,” she giggled. “I just can’t keep my hands off you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he rolled his eyes as he lay back down and wrapped his arm around her. “So my parents are coming down next weekend... wanna have lunch with us?”

“Sure... but my parents are coming that weekend too.” Sydney laughed.

“You’re kidding?” he laughed.

“Nope,” she shook her head.

“Well then, maybe the six of us should have lunch together and we can tell them all at the same time,” he smiled.

“Tell them all what? About us? My parents already know...,” she said with confusion.

Michael smiled at her, slid out of bed and walked over to his suitcase. He retuned a moment later with something clutched in the palm of his hand. He propped himself up on his elbow, opened the box in his hand and held it out to her. “I thought we could tell them about this.”

Sydney’s eyes flooded with tears as she looked at his grandmother’s ring in the box in front of her. Then she looked back up to him on the verge of crying, her heart positively melting.

“Syd...,” he began.

“Oh god Michael...,” she sighed.

“Syd,” he repeated as he pulled the ring out of the box and took her left hand. “I love you so much and I want you to be my wife – not for some stupid pretend faking my boss out thing – but forever. And I was thinking... maybe when this ring was stuck on your hand before, it was a sign. Maybe... maybe it wasn’t supposed to leave your hand ever. So, what do you say, will you marry me?” he asked as he slid the ring on her finger.

Sydney stared down at her finger in disbelieve. “I can’t believe you put that on... I’m never gonna get it off now!” she choked through her tears. Michael looked slightly uneasy. “NO! No... I mean yes, of course I’ll marry you... I’d just like to not have to cut the circulation in my finger off.”

“Oh,” he laughed. “No, I had it resized and made just a little bit bigger, see,” he demonstrated that the ring actually came off her finger before putting it on once again.

“Oh,” Sydney laughed softly as she moved the ring around and found that it was much more comfortable than the last time. “When... when did you have this done?” she asked.

He shrugged. “A while ago... I mean, I knew I’d be giving it to you and I didn’t want to... you know, kill your finger,” he smiled.

Sydney leaned forward and kissed him. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Syd,” he smiled as he fell back onto the bed with her.

“Oh no! Oh wait... I thought of something bad,” she cringed.

“What?” he asked with confusion.

“Well... what if our parents ask how you proposed? What are we gonna say? ‘Oh we were completely naked in bed’...”

Michael laughed. “Probably shouldn’t say that.”

“Probably not,” Sydney shook her head.

“Eh, we’ll come up with a lie later,” he grinned before kissing her.

~*~

“Jeez, there you guys are... I was beginning to get worried – the shower’s broken,” Eric told them when they arrived back at their apartment Sunday afternoon.

“Did you call the Super?” Michael asked.

“Uh no... was I supposed to?” Eric asked.

Michael rolled his eyes. “I’ll call.”

“Sooo, how was your weekend?” Eric grinned to Sydney.

She held up her left hand and giggled. “We’re getting married.”

“OH YAY!” Eric grinned. “Whoa, holy shit... that’s some hella ugly ring Mike bought you.”

“Hey!” Sydney whined as she covered her hand protectively. “I love it.”

Eric grimaced. “Why?”

“What’s the matter?” Michael asked when he hung up the phone.

“Eric thinks my ring is ugly,” Sydney pouted.

“Dude, seriously, get taste.” Eric shook his head.

“I’ll have you know that this is my grandmother’s ring and while I wouldn’t jump right to ‘ugly,’ it definitely is an acquired taste,” Michael told him. Sydney gasped; Michael laughed. “But Sydney loves it, which is all that matters,” Michael smiled.

“See,” Sydney grinned.

“Whatever... at least I don’t have to wear it...,” Eric sighed.

“I’ll keep that in mind next time I propose to you Eric,” Michael laughed. Eric just walked away. “So anyway... when did you want to get married?” Michael asked.

Sydney laughed. “Well that was random! What’s the rush?”

“Me?! Rush?! You’re the one who’s all I want to have a baby but I’m getting old and we have to be married first blah blah blah...”

Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t mock me.”

“I would never,” he told her with a smile.

“Well... I don’t want to wait too long... but you never know, we might have a baby sooner than you think,” she smiled at him. He turned pale and swallowed hard; she burst out laughing. “That was great! Michael, we had sex for the first time two days ago.”

“Jesus woman, don’t do that!” he groaned.

“I thought you wanted to have a baby with me,” she said sadly.

“I do and nobody else,” he smiled. “But like you said, we need to be married first so your father doesn’t kill me like he almost killed Nadia’s husband.”

“Good point. I wouldn’t want you dead.” She smiled. “I love you too much... besides, then who would I force to help me feed and change the baby?”

“Good to know.” He rolled his eyes.

“Aww,” she sighed as she walked over and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I can’t wait to have a baby with you. I mean... I can wait I just... you know what I mean,” she laughed.

“Yeah I do. I can’t wait to have a baby with you either.”





Epilogue

“Michael!” Sydney called to her husband of five years while slamming the phone back down. “That was the baby-sitter! She’s not coming! How the hell are we going to find a sitter in... TWENTY MINUTES!” she screeched as she looked at the nearest clock. They were supposed to be leaving to meet Mr. Dixon, Michael’s boss, in the city for dinner.

Four years earlier, when Sydney had gotten pregnant, Michael accepted Mr. Dixon’s offer for him to run a branch of their firm in Connecticut. They had moved, along with Eric (who lived over their garage), and loved their home in the suburbs with a swing set in the backyard for their son, Joey (and Eric). That evening, they were supposed to be going to the city to celebrate the success of the advertising firm that Michael ran and Sydney helped with during the half days she wasn’t spending with their son.

“Ohh... isn’t there anyone else we can call?” Michael sighed as he came out of the bathroom, completely dressed and ready to go.

“No... I don’t think so... I don’t know...,” Sydney sighed as she ran down the steps, in search of her address book.

“What’s going on?” Eric asked as he picked Joey up from the floor of the family room, where the two of them were watching cartoons.

“The sitter canceled,” Sydney said in a frazzled manor. “Now I have to find a new one.”

“I’ll do it,” Eric offered. Sydney let out a loud, short laugh. “I will!” he insisted.

“What will he do?” Michael asked.

“Baby-sit Joey.” Eric told him. Michael looked wary. “Oh come on!! Remember two weeks ago when Syd ran to the store? We were fine!”

“Eric, that was fifteen minutes! This would be like four hours!” Sydney told him.

“So?! That’s only like... four times the amount of time,” Eric said in a confused manor, trying to add in his head.

Sydney groaned and put her head in her hands. “And that is exactly why you can’t watch Joey.”

“Mummy,” Joey said as he slid out of his ‘uncle’s’ arms and walked over to his mother. “Ewic stay.”

“Aw sweetie, I know you love Eric but...,” Sydney sighed as she ruffled her son’s sandy blonde hair.

“Pweese,” Joey said angelically.

“Yeah, please,” Eric said.

Sydney glanced cautiously at her husband. “Well... he is all we’ve got,” Michael said. “And he knows if he screws up we’ll kick him out.”

“Yep,” Eric said firmly, recalling the time his things were on the front lawn after he had tried to give Joey his first haircut while Michael was asleep on the couch.

“Fine,” Sydney sighed. “But no cooking, no haircuts, no fires, absolutely nothing dangerous.”

“Okay, right, got it,” Eric said.

“And... if something happens- god forbid- call us... call my parents or 911 or SOMETHING!”

“Syd, breathe,” Michael told his nearly hysterical wife.

“Okay, okay,” she breathed. “We’ll call you and if you don’t answer the phone, so help me god-”

“Bags on the front lawn, I GET IT! Syd, we’ll be cool. We’ll just watch some TV, he’ll go to bed and we’ll survive,” Eric told her.

“Okay...,” she said warily before bending down to her son and giving him a tight hug. “Mommy loves you so much... be good for Uncle Eric.”

“Okay, bye Mommy,” Joey waved.

~*~

“Syd, they’ll be fine,” Michael smiled at her as he squeezed her hand when they were walking to the restaurant. “Yeah... I’m just going to call and-”

“Syd, you called five minutes ago and they were fine, just like they were ten minutes before that.” Michael laughed softly.

“How are you ok with this?!” Sydney screeched.

“Because... however inept Eric may be, he’s actually very good with Joey and you know that,” Michael said as he stroked her face with his thumb.

“You’re right,” she sighed.

“I know,” he grinned.

Sydney managed to make it though dinner without calling Eric once and when they arrived home, they found their son in one piece, much to their relief.

“So, does this mean I get to baby-sit again?!” Eric asked excitedly.

“We’ll see,” Sydney said cautiously.

“Fine, fine... ‘night guys,” Eric waved before walking out the front door and up to his garage apartment.

“He’s such a nut,” Sydney laughed.

“But a loveable one,” Michael smiled.

“I guess...,” she sighed. They went upstairs and, after checking on Joey, went to their room to change into their PJs. “By the way...,” Sydney said as she was removing her earrings and putting them back in her jewelry case. “I’m pregnant.”

Michael dropped the pants he was trying to hang up, spun around and gaped at her. “WHAT?!” he screeched, louder than he should have. She giggled and nodded. “You’re pregnant?!”

“Yeah,” she smiled.

“Wha... why... ahh, that’s wonderful!” He grinned as he crossed the room in two steps and pulled her into a kiss. “When did you find out?”

“Yesterday,” she smiled.

“AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME?!” he gasped in shock.

She shrugged. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“Well, I’m surprised.” He laughed. “I love you so much and I can’t wait to have another baby.”

“Me neither... maybe we’ll get a girl this time,” she smiled as she put both her hands on her stomach.

Michael put his hand over hers, kissed her and smiled. “I hope we do.”

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