Alias is not mine, blah, blah, blah, etc…
Title : Desperation
Summary : Vaughn finally has Sydney back but there is trouble. When she is missing again he has to turn to the one person he despises in order to find her again.
Rating : PG13
No Spoilers – Please R&R – feedback is great!
The Meeting
He was sitting in the back corner of the bar, just like he said he would be. Walking closer to the table, it was clear that he had been there for a while. Either that or he was drinking too quickly.
The message was simple. Need your help.
I wonder what you are getting yourself into Agent Vaughn.
When he arrived at the CIA Agent's table, Vaughn didn't notice at first. When he finally looked up there was just a nod of the head to the empty chair.
"Your message said you needed help?" The blond man said when he sat down.
"I need to know what happened…to Sydney."
"Don't you think you should worry about your own…marriage issues, Agent Vaughn, rather than get involved with this?"
Vaughn looked across the table at the man he just asked to help him. All he could do was sit and wonder how he got here. He never would have thought his world would change when the girl with the dyed red hair walked into his life.
How long ago had it been? It didn't matter anymore.
He rubbed his temple, trying to ease away a headache he could feel coming and looked back up to the man sitting with him.
"Look Sark, you got lucky and got out of custody. I might not know all the conditions but none of that matters. You still have your contacts and I need to know. And you know about my marriage."
The two men stared each other down. Sark was hiding something, Vaughn was sure of it, but at the same time where else was there to go?
"Your relationship with Sydney didn't work out," Sark said in a low voice. "then there was Lauren, but things didn't go well there either."
Sark was enjoying this, almost too much. The look on Michael's face was priceless. The cross between disgust for having to ask Sark for help, combined with the raw need to know what happened was satisfying to Sark.
To say that Vaughn's marriage to Lauren wasn't well was an understatement. Leave it to Sark to bring her up. But the marriage was over in more ways than one. Lauren was gone. Vaughn had shot and killed her but he had changed long before that.
The first time he realized that things with Lauren weren't what they seemed he ignored the feeling, and evidence, but she became sloppy, the power she thought she had went to her head. He couldn't think of that now.
"It's not a hard decision." Leaning across the table Vaughn grabbed Sark's jacket and continued. "Either help me or don't, just give me an answer."
The staring contest continued. Sark was the first to break the glare by indicating to his jacket. Vaughn let go of the jacket and thought that two could play at that game.
"You claimed to love Lauren – "
Laughter interrupted him.
"Oh Agent Vaughn. I guess I forgot how much I was supposed to care for her." Sark looked at Vaughn's confused face before continuing. "I never loved Lauren. She was a cow. Do you know she honestly thought herself as my equal? You actually did me a favour."
Be careful you don't push him too far. But he didn't have to worry. Something was broken inside him. The once virtuous Agent Vaughn, The Boy Scout, was just a shell of a man now. A desperate shell since he was asking for help from his enemy.
"Look," Vaughn started, trying to explain himself enough to get a straight answer from Sark. "I need to find out what happened to Sydney during her two years. I need help, if you know anything, I'm asking you to tell me."
Considering this, Sark took a look around the dark bar they were at. It was crowded enough to allow Sark the option of killing Vaughn. It would be easy enough, one shot from his gun, hidden by the table, the bullet entering through the stomach, making a small hole. But once inside the destruction would begin. Sark could then, just get up and be swallowed by the crowd. The noise in the bar was loud enough, and from the looks of it, this was the kind of place that wouldn't give it another thought.
But he's not here to kill Agent Vaughn, no matter how much he would like to, if only to get him to stop being pathetic. Like now.
He's just trying to mess with you, to see how far you'll go, Vaughn said to himself. He knew he had to stay calm. Getting angry with Sark, while it might ease his suffering for a moment, wasn't going to help him in the long run. Sydney. That's all that matters. I need to find out what happened to her and where she is.
Standing up, Sark looked down on the crumbled agent. "You will hear from me."
Vaughn tried to watch him leave but couldn't focus very well, losing sight of him fairly quickly. He would just have to wait.
After leaving Vaughn at the bar, Sark drove away thinking about what had just happened.
He didn't expect to see Vaughn so beaten, a broken man, nothing like the man Sark had first met. Sydney's death had affected everyone, but when she came back – well that was something different, something no one was prepared for.
Once he was far enough from the bar, and sure he wasn't being followed, Sark pulled out his phone and made a call. He did not know if he still had a contact willing to help with this, but he would try. Even if Agent Vaughn didn't get the information he was looking for, it was going to be fun to watch.
When the phone started to ring on the other end his lip slowly curled up, it would be really fun to watch.