Title: Substitute

Rating: NC-17

Pairing: Sydney/Vaughn

Summary: Missing scene in Man of His Word, what Sark and Sydney's kiss drove Vaughn to.

XxX

"Anna Espinosa."

"Julian Sark," he replied painfully. It's nice to meet you."

XxX

They went back to the hotel room, walking together silently. She hated dressing up like Lauren. The hair in the disguise was different than Lauren's - blonde, but different. What it must have been like for Vaughn to see her like that. She had seen it in his eyes. He hated looking at her as Lauren. She never saw more pain in his eyes than she did in that moment.

Sark had been no help, laying flirtatious comments on her - her as Lauren. Luckily, he was already aware that if he had touched Sydney in a way she didn't ask to be touched, he would, at the very least, be severely bruised. He never underestimated her now. She was, after all, his mentor's daughter.

"I must, uh, tell you...Lauren and I had a... reputation; certain intimacies were public knowledge. We must maintain appearances."

Sydney still couldn't believe he had said that to her. Did he really expect her to just tilt her head back and let him drink shots from her breasts? Was he insane? He at least read her eyes well when San'ko performed that ritual on his latest partner.

"Don't even fucking think about it."

The look on Sark's face showed complete understanding and so he left her alone.

Then the kiss! She knew she needed to do it. It was the very least of what Lauren would've done. Not that she could match Lauren perfectly; she barely knew the woman, never really saw in spy action, but she could guess. She went along with the kiss momentarily so she could break the skin of his lips and let him know for certain that she was in charge.

Vaughn. Vaughn had been watching. Vaughn saw it all. Could anything be more fucked up than that? Sydney kissing Sark, Sydney dressed as Lauren, who was Vaughn's ex-wife who had been sleeping with Sark, who always had a fascination with Sydney. Sydney, who hated Sark for being involved in Francie's murder, dressing as her rival after her break from death to pretend to work for the bad guys who stole her life from her for two years was the icing on the cake. Yeah, this was pretty fucked up.

Stepping inside the room, Sydney tried to free her mind of all these thoughts and get back to work.

"We'll get him back," she tried to soothe.

Vaughn began to remove his jacket while she began to remove her wig. Instantly he grabbed her arms, unconsciously preventing her, and forced her back against the wall before she had a chance to respond. Her eyes opened wide when her back hit the wall and she exhaled harshly.

"Vaughn!" she exclaimed.

But his eyes were angry, raw, and open. He saw a trace of dried blood on her lower lip. Saturating his own fingers with his saliva, he brushed them over her lips. Sliding them over her mouth or lips harshly so she moaned slightly, he attempted to remove any remaining blood and lipstick from her mouth. She tried to whimper his name but she couldn't. His fingers abraded over her lips roughly, deepening the color of her naturally pink lips into an almost blood red.

Finally he stopped, leaving her breathless and dizzy.

"How could you do that to me?" he asked before diving down to engulf her mouth in his own.

In the forceful kiss he pulled her from the wall against him, and her hands instinctively going to his shoulders for support. He was kissing her so fast and so hard that she gave up trying to keep up and let him rain down upon her. As he moved between her legs, she could feel his hands dive between them, and she could feel him slipping his fingers beneath her underwear.

She tried to tell him with her body that she wanted him too. She tried to tell him that she wanted him too, but he wouldn't let speak, wouldn't let it be gentle.

*He's angry. Is he using me as a replacement for Lauren? Is he really not making love to me, but in fact fucking Lauren?*

Was he imagining her lips were Lauren's, that her hair, her scent, everything belonged to Lauren? Could she be the substitute? A thousand thoughts were piling inside her mind as his body shattered hers, turning hers into a pool of want.

"Vaughn," she murmured against his kisses. "Vaughn!"

She wanted him to know it was her that he was touching, so she took her hands and guided them to her blonde wig and together, they pulled it from her head. The wig fell to the floor while her own brunette hair cascaded down her shoulders. She heard the pins crack against the wall behind her from the brutal pull of the unwanted, false hair. Vaughn's fierceness was going nowhere.

Her insides tightened in anticipation. She ached, she dampened, and she moaned against him as his fingers touched her with anything but gentleness. His free hand tangled in her hair, imposing his need for her on her mouth over and over again. Her mouth swelled and her body loosened.

"Vaughn, it's me," she whispered, trying to calm him down, trying to make sure he knew he was with Sydney, no one else.

He spread her legs wider, forcing them around his waist once he'd pushed her panties away, and in the process he tore the dress. She hissed in response to hearing the slight tear, and allowed herself to be pulled up by him. He covered her nipple with his wet mouth, licking at it furiously.

Without anymore warning he thrust into her, crying out in his need for her. She closed her eyes and let the waves fall over her. She felt his fingers scrambling through her hair and she felt him slam into her body. He was so hard it took a minute for her to adjust, but only a minute.

He licked the sweat on her neck, on her chest, and then he reached down to tease her again. She could feel he was close, but she needed him to kiss her to muffle the scream she felt coming on. Each thrust built up inside her, flooding her with more need. She tried to silence her moans with her fingers, but they did little good.

"Vaughn," she said through thrusts. "Vaughn! Vaughn, kiss me!" she more demanded than requested.

When he refused, she clawed at his face slightly and brought his mouth to hers. He flicked her clit and she cried out in his mouth, her cry mixing with his own. They fell back against the wall, holding onto each other. Letting his weak limbs give out, he collapsed against her.

She wrapped her loving arms around him, protecting him.

"It's okay," she told him, feeling his pain.

He ripped his body away from hers.

"No, it's not okay, Sydney!"

Well that answered her question about who he was sleeping with in his own mind.

"How could you do it?"

"Do what?"

"KISS HIM! As her!"

"Vaughn, that's the ONLY way I could do it. As her! I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt you but I had to do something. I'm…I'm sorry."

He turned away from her.

"No, no I'm sorry. I tore your dress and probably bruised your mouth, among other parts of you. I'm sorry."

"As if I've never been bruised before, Vaughn; it's me. I'm fine, I'm here, and I'm with you."

"I'm so unfair to you. I lost a wife I no longer loved. You…you lost everything. And I threw her in your face. Who am I to say who you should kiss when we're on the job?"

"I did lose everything, but I got you back. That's…everything. And if you were feeling anything other than what you were about me kissing Sark, then I'd be mad."

She was saying that to make him smile, and it worked. He rushed over to her and swept her up in a warm embrace.

"I'm sorry," he told her. "You've got me now. Always."

"I'm so sorry for what Sark put you through, and he helped kill Francie, so I hate him too, you know that. He tried to kill Will, kill you, and he makes everyone he sees absolutely crazy. I'm with you, Vaughn. I always was."

The phone rang.

"It's my father."

Sydney picked up the phone.

"Dad?"

"Sydney, what happened?"

"We played right into her hands. Anna killed San'ko in front of our eyes and then distracted us long enough to grab Sark."

"You couldn't have predicted this. He had no intelligence suggesting the two shared a history or an agenda."

She put the wig on the bed.

"Still, I should have considered it was a possibility…"

~The End~