Title: Silence
Author: Assilem_1 a.k.a. Melissa
Disclaimer: Alias belongs to JJ Abrams and other people whose names are not mine
Category: Season 3, some S/V angst (Is there anything else in Season 3?)
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Through first 2 eps of Season 3
Summary: The results of a mission . . .
Part 1: Four minutes
"Base I have the package, I'm in room 214. I need extraction."
"Copy that Mountaineer. Team's on it's way. E.T.A. in-" a pause as he checked with the team "4 minutes" came over the static in her comm link, Vaughn's voice sounding even more detached over the connection than it did in person these days.
Sydney nodded even though he couldn't see her and kept her gun aimed at Koreshnokov, a member of the Convenant that might have answers about her missing two years.
So far he wasn't talking . . .
Which made sense because he was unconscious.
She turned her wrist so she could see her watch and sighed.
*4 minutes*
She purposely avoided focusing on the seconds hand moving around the surface; Something that had been drawing her attention a lot lately.
Time . . .
It was such a simple thing really. Like her watch, it was just hands moving on a clock. Blinking numbers. Eventually, pages on a calendar. Certainly not worthy of the emotions she felt when she contemplated it.
"Syd, since that night . . . you were missing. You've been missing for almost two years . . ."
Time stole two years of her life.
Well, really, the Covenant stole two years of her life, but time kept going.
Life moved on without Sydney Bristow in it.
People laughed, people cried and she died; Not necessarily in that order.
And now that she was back, she felt like she wasn't.
I'm just a ghost in this house . . .
Sometimes she thinks she should have stayed dead. Stayed wherever she was, *who*ever she was; Because this life, it's not hers anymore.
She can't be Sydney Bristow anymore . . .
Sydney Bristow is dead.
*3 minutes*
Sydney Bristow had a best friend named Francie Calfo . . .
Francie Calfo is dead.
Sydney tries not to remember killing her.
Sydney Bristow had another friend named Will Tippin . . .
Will Tippin is gone.
Forced into hiding because he knew Sydney Bristow. Sometimes she thinks she killed him too.
And lastly, Sydney Bristow had a love . . .
Michael Vaughn
Even her thoughts catch on his name.
Sydney Bristow had Michael Vaughn; A man who loved her and cherished her above all others . . .
Michael Vaughn is gone.
*2 minutes*
Sometimes she thinks he killed her. Took aim with his words ...
"I loved you so much it nearly killed me"
...finger squeezing the trigger ...
"You got married?"
"I did."
...and blew away her heart ...
"I don't regret moving on"
Why was she even still doing this?
Her hand started to lower . . .
She was tired, so tired. All there was were missions, mission briefings and mission debriefings.
A constant search for answers that wouldn't change anything.
Two years of her life would still be lost. Her friends would still be gone. Vaughn would still be married. She would still be dead.
*1 minute*
Her hand lowered still further and Koreshnokov saw his chance.
Quickly he spun over and delivered a swift kick to her hands. The gun went sailing into the air, landing with a thud somewhere behind him. He flipped into a standing position and Sydney ducked a punch and threw a low kick that put him on one knee. Next she kicked high, aiming for his head but he caught her foot and she twisted to escape his hold and used the momentum to throw a kick that, when it made contact, sent him sprawling away from her. She was so busy trying to keep the offensive that she didn't see the gun he had grabbed until it was pointed right at her.
She froze.
Too late . . .
A fraction of a second too late and time was against her once again.
She should have kept her head in the game, shouldn't have been thinking about Vaughn.
"Goodbye" he said to her in Russian as he squeezed the trigger, gun aimed at her chest.
"I loved you so much it nearly killed me"
She closed her eyes.
Goodbye
The shot seemed to echo as into her commlink came Vaughn's voice, no longer detached.
"Mountaineer, are you ok?"
"Sydney?!"
"Syd?"
~*silence*~
Four minutes