Title: Happily Ever After
Author: brokenflower
Email: faithcharity@adelphia.net
Distribution: Go ahead and put it wherever you want but email me let me know first.
Disclaimer: Poor little me, I own nothing, if I did then Vaughn would not be breathing battery fluid right not. Alias is owned by ABC, Touchstone, and was created by J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot Productions.
Summary: Sydney relates a childhood memory to her situation as she sits, waiting to see "The Man" after Vaughn's unfortunate death. Sydney's POV.
Rating: G
Category: Angst/Drama
~
"…And the prince and the princess lived happily ever after."
With a close of the book, her mother's bedtime story had come to an end.
"Mommy?" the small child asked.
"Yes, sweetie?"
"Do happily ever afters happen in real life? Like with a prince and a princess and a castle and a horse and a everything?" she asked eagerly.
Her mother laughed at the question and made a mental note to talk to her girl about her grammar.
"Maybe, not exactly like that, but yes. I think that after so many hardships things can only get better in the end."
"Meaning you live happily ever after! With a prince!" the child exclaimed enthusiastically. "Like you and daddy!"
Her mother took her hand gently. "Yes, daddy is my prince. One day, you'll find your prince and you'll live your own fairy tale."
"And we'll live happily ever after?"
"And you'll live happily ever after," her mother assured her.
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"I'm never ever going to stop believing in happily ever afters," the little child announced.
Her mother remained silent.
"I love you mommy," she said adoringly.
"I love you too Sydney. My dearest Sydney, sleep tight."
Tucking her daughter into bed, Laura turned off the light and looked back at her child's sleeping form, illuminated only by the soft glow of a night light. She softened her gaze and felt herself letting down her guard for such a precious angel.
"My angel, my princess," she whispered.
Sydney smiled as she heard the words flow from her mother's mouth but she kept herself silent, faced away so as to not give away what she had heard. She was her mother's angel, her princess. Feeling special and loved Sydney hugged the blankets closer and drifted off into the dream world that only the young and innocent had the privilege to enjoy.
Hearing Jack's movements in his study down the hall, Laura straightened her posture and remembered her purpose for being there.
~
Some promise. You promised mom and look at where I am right now. Tied up to some damn chair, helpless. Whatever happened to my fairy tale life? Whatever happened to my prince? Whatever happened to happily ever after?
This is not a fairy tale life. I hate this life. Having to lie to all the people that I love everyday. What makes it worse is the fact that I don't even give my stories a second thought, they just come out of mouth before I even realize what I'm doing. The next thing I know, my friends are nodding their heads accepting it as truth. Whatever happened to happily ever after?
Whatever happened to my prince? No, I know what happened to my prince. That face, no matter what happens to me I will never forget that face. How could someone about to die care so much for the person who caused his death? He wanted me to go, his eyes begged me to leave him, to save myself. It wasn't the first time. He has always, as long as I've known him, gone to extremes to save me. He has always put himself, his life and career, in danger for me. Why? I used to not understand how he could put himself through all of that for me. Now I know. One look into those pleading eyes and I know. Love. He loved me. More than he should have and he knew it. That's why he tried to distance himself from me, because he knew he was getting too close, he was breaking protocol, the same protocol that we had sworn by. But that story, about his father dying by the rules, it wasn't just about coming with me on this mission. It was about breaking the rules for his love for me. How could I have been so blind? All this time he has loved me and now…now that he's gone, I finally realized, I love him. I love him. He's my prince, the prince that I have wanted for so long. Whatever happened to happily ever after?
Footsteps. I hear them. I look up and am silent, trying to remember, trying to understand.
"You're Alexander Khasinou."
I hate him. He is the reason why, why I will never have my prince, why the man that I have grown to love and cherish will never know that I feel the same way and so much more that he has felt for me.
"You should eat something."
I watched as he lifted the forkful of food towards me. I'm disgusted. This isn't how it was supposed to be. How could a relatively easy mission, destroy the circumference and then get out of there, go so wrong? It started out fine, some piece of slime suddenly groped me but Vaughn, being my guardian angel, shoved him out of the way and pulled me out of there. I remember how I smiled, suddenly feeling so special that Vaughn, a normally calm and peaceful man, had turned aggressive and intimidating, for me. I'm not smiling now. Whatever happened to happily ever after?
"I'm not hungry."
How can I eat at a time like this? I shouldn't be here, restrained in a chair while the one man who truly knew me better than anyone else I have ever known floats lifelessly in a black sea of poison, trapped. I feel sick to even breath knowing that because of me, Vaughn was denied that act. Whatever happened to happily ever after?
He turns to leave and now I feel angry.
"Wait. I have questions for you."
Like why you chose to hurt Will? Like why you tried to expose me? Like why you took away the man I loved, my one chance at happiness?
"You can ask my boss."
"Your boss? I thought 'The Man' was the boss."
"Yes. Yes, but I'm not the man."
What did he mean? He had to have been, if not him then…
"I have waited almost thirty years for this."
That voice. I know that voice. It was the same voice that read me bedtime stories. The same voice that promised me I would live a fairy tale life and together my prince and I would live happily ever after. Now, I can hear that voice, ordering the torture of Will. Ordering that I be exposed and put in mortal danger. Ordering the deaths of so many innocent lives without feeling of remorse or sympathy. Now I know, that voice that I had wanted to hear for so long, the voice that could have brought me so much comfort as I struggled to grow up…is nothing but the voice of a heartless murderer. Whatever happened to happily ever after?
"Mom?"
You lied to me. You promised I would be happy. You promised me a fairy tale life but you took that away the day you left your family. You promised me my prince but you took that away from me the moment you killed his father. You promised me a happy ending but this…this isn't a happy ending. I don't believe in happily ever after anymore.