Note:  Italics (mostly) denote thoughts.

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CHAPTER ONE – THE NEXT 2 MINUTES

"Syd... since that night... you were missing. You've been missing for almost two years."

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Sydney was silent.

"You… you have no idea what we went through – trying to find you.  We traced every lead we could think of, no matter how weak, and always came up short."  Vaughn rushed to fill the void.  "We thought Sloane had…"

"Stop!"  Sydney finally found her voice. "Tell me… about the ring," she demanded, her tone low and hard.

"What?  Sydney, it isn't what you think!"  he cried.  Less than two minutes into their conversation and she was making him completely lose his train of thought.  He needed to explain to her…

"You're married," she stated flatly.

"Syd, please listen," he begged, "after you disappeared… I lost it – I just lost it.  Jack and I did everything we could…"

"ARE YOU MARRIED?"

Vaughn took a ragged breath and released it into one word… "Yes."

As soon as the word left his lips Vaughn felt a hard smack across the left side of his face.  He reflexively closed his eyes and didn't move until he heard a choked sob coming from the woman now crumpled on the floor in front of him.  Murmurs of "I'm sorry" and "How could you" were interspersed with pulsating breaths and guttural moans that sounded more like they came from a wild animal than the frail person whose pain he had helped cause.

This can't be happening, he thought.  She's alive.  We're together.  Why can't I get this right?  Come on, Vaughn, pull it together.  But he could never put together a coherent sentence when she was in pain.  The only thing left for him to do was rely on instinct.

"Shh… Sydney…  It's alright.  It'll be alright.  Please, just listen to me.  Please let me explain."  They stayed huddled in between their two chairs, on the grubby, matted, hotel room floor for what seemed like an eternity. 

Suddenly she pushed him away with a glare that felt like she had just sucked out his soul.

"Tell me!  Tell me how this is alright!  One of my best friends was replaced by a double - who lived in my house and nearly killed my other best friend – all set up by my mother and the man intent on destroying my life in their bizarre quest for some lunatic's idea of the future!  I don't remember the past 2 years of my life.  And to top it all off, the… the love of my life is married to someone else… how is this alright?" 

She stopped and sat, panting for breath.  Sydney jerked her glance downward, waiting for this man - the man she had believed would have been her husband by this point in her life - to respond.  She'd never told him she loved him… what better time then two minutes after two years since the last time she saw him?  Nothing made sense anymore, anyway, so what did it matter if she made a fool of herself… she could blame it on the amnesia later.

"Syd.  Syd, look at me."  Vaughn gently placed his index finger under her chin and raised it so he could look in her eyes.

"I love you, too."

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