Author's Note: This story is really an alternate ending for the episode 'Without a Sound." If you are a fan of the show, it's likely you are familiar with this one, in which Gage loses his hearing and he and Sydney become closer as she helps him cope with the challenges he must face as a deaf person. You are probably also familiar with the thoroughly UNSATISFYING ending, in which Sydney makes a rather awkward confession about her feelings for him, but because he is still under anesthesia—from surgery to repair his hearing—when she tells him, we never really know for sure if he hears her. AAAAARRRRGGH! In pure fan fiction style, this story seeks to conquer the frustration by answering the questions 'Did he hear her or didn't he?' and 'What happened after that?'


After the Silence: A New Beginning

By

Moviemom44

After the initial celebration for his restored hearing winds down and Trivette, Walker and Alex leave, Gage asks Sydney to stay a while longer. He wants to talk some more, because it feels so good to be able to hear again after all those weeks of silence…

"OK, I can stay a while, I guess. What do you want to talk about?" Sydney asked, sitting back down on the edge of the bed.

"I don't know. Anything. I guess I don't really want to talk as much as I want to listen. I want to listen to the sound of your voice. I never thought I'd say this, but I really missed listening to you grumble at me about taking too long to finish my paperwork, or complain about my lousy cooking, or tease me about my taste in movies, or—"

"OK! OK! I get it. Fine, I'll talk," she snapped. But she didn't say anything. She only looked at him with sad eyes.

"Syd?" he prodded, gently.

No response.

"Is that all you missed? The bad stuff?" she finally asked, her voice small and full of hurt.

He saw that there were tears in her eyes. Oh, hell. He hadn't meant it like that, but it didn't matter. That was what she had heard—the bad stuff. He needed to turn that frown upside down.

So he tickled her. He wrapped one arm tightly around her waist, clamping her against his side. Then he found her most vulnerable tickle spot—her two bottom ribs—with the fingers of his other hand.

She shrieked with uncontrolled laughter and struggled to get away. Unable to get a foothold because her legs were too short to reach the floor, she could only twist her body to try to break his hold on her. She turned to face him, effectively blocking his access to her ribcage.

His onslaught stopped immediately, but her laughter continued until he moved his tickling hand to her chin, directing her face toward his. She'd ended up lying across his body, gulping for air. With every breath she took, her breasts brushed against his chest. Now he was having trouble breathing.

One quick lift of his head from the pillow and he could close the tiny distance between them. He could, once and for all, know what it would be like to kiss her, for real, not as part of some undercover assignment. But first, he had something he needed to say.

"Your laugh, Syd, that's what I missed hearing the most. I love your laugh. It's like music, and it's very, very sexy." His voice had dropped in both pitch and volume as he spoke until 'sexy' was only a hoarse whisper.

In the end, his head never left the pillow; she lowered her lips to his and kissed him like the lover he always dreamed she'd be. Hot, sweet and wet, her mouth joined with his in a sensational kiss that promised even greater delights. Wrapping his arms around her, he hauled her the rest of the way onto the bed, turning her so that her lithe body pressed against the length of his.

She moved to capture his mouth with hers again, but stopped when he placed his index finger against her lips. Resting his forehead on hers, his gray-blue eyes glittering with desire, he begged, "Tell me again, Syd. Say what you said right before I opened my eyes."

"You mean about the hole in your sock?" she teased. She knew perfectly well what he meant.

"No, you goof, before that. I want you to say it again knowing I'll hear you." As he spoke, he dusted tiny kisses along her eyelids, her temples, the corners of her mouth. "Please, Syd, do it."

In that bed, in that moment, he could have asked her to dance naked down the middle of the George W. Bush Turnpike and she'd have done it—with bells on. So, looking directly into his eyes, she repeated what she'd told him word for word.

"Gage, there are some things I wanted to tell you, things I should have told you when you could actually hear me say them. I love your voice. I just love the sound of your voice. Every morning when I wake up, I can't wait to hear it. And every night, when I go to sleep, I wish you were there. I can't believe I never told you that. I can't believe—"

Not wanting to hear the part about his sock again, he kissed her parted lips, boldly sliding his tongue between them, exploring, tasting, savoring her. He dragged his hand down past her hip and molded his palm to the curve of her firm backside, thus inciting a riot in his loins.

Hospital gowns being what they are, Sydney couldn't miss the hard ridge of his arousal pressing against her belly. A smoky curl of lust wove its way through her very center, choking the last breath of reason from her mind, leaving her more than ready to give herself to him completely, right here, right now. Running her hand down his arm, she encountered the IV tube at his elbow, and reason flooded back in like the ocean at high tide.

She groaned as she dragged her lips from his. Fighting the urge to kiss her way along his jaw and nibble on his earlobe, she wriggled out of his arms and stood next to the bed.

"Geez, that was hard—" she confessed between shallow breaths.

"You have no idea," Gage mumbled through gritted teeth.

"Oh, but I do," she returned. For a split second her gaze lit on the fold in the blanket that wasn't really a fold in the blanket, but then focused again on his face. He was smiling through the strain.

"Come here," he urged, beckoning her to come into his arms again.

"Gage, I don't think we should—"

"Come. Here." The heat in his eyes could have melted the habit off a nun.

She'd waited too long for him to look at her that way to be able to resist him now.

"OK, here goes. But if we get caught, I'm telling them it was all your idea," she threatened as she moved into his arms. She expected him to pull her into the bed with him again, but instead he rested his hands lightly on her waist and leaned his forehead against hers.

"Syd, honey, I need you to do me a favor." His breathing had returned to normal and the fire in his eyes had downgraded from a conflagration to glowing embers.

"Lock the door?" she guessed.

He grinned appreciatively, but shook his head, which made hers wag back and forth, too.

"That did cross my mind, about a thousand times in the last ten seconds, but no. I need you to go find Dr. Clark and tell him I want to go home. Now."

She was out the door so fast he felt the breeze when it swung open. His laughter followed her all the way down the corridor.

Ten minutes later, Sydney returned with Dr. Clark in tow.

"Wow, that was quick."

"You said, 'now'." She raked him with a smoldering look and smiled inwardly when his eyes widened at her boldness.

Dr. Clark appeared to miss the exchange altogether while he studied Gage's chart.

"Ranger Cooke tells me you are anxious to leave us," the doctor stated.

"Yes, very," Gage replied earnestly.

"Well, I don't think it's wise to send you home so soon after the surgery. There could still be complications—infection or swelling, which might cause the grafts to rupture and render you deaf again. If you stay here we can continue the IV antibiotics and catch any swelling before it becomes dangerous," Dr. Clark advised.

Two minutes sooner, Doc, and you'd have seen some VERY dangerous swelling.

"How much longer would I have to stay here?"

"If we don't see any significant swelling by tomorrow morning, you could go home tomorrow afternoon. That would also give me time to administer a hearing test to verify that you are hearing as well as you should."

Gage glanced at Sydney and had to stifle a laugh. She looked like somebody had just licked all the red off her lollipop. Her disappointment made his heart sing. Of course, he wasn't any happier about the delay than she was, but he also didn't want to risk losing his hearing again so soon.

"OK, Doc, you talked me into one more day, but after that, I'm out of here," Gage agreed, shrugging at Sydney when she glared at him from behind Dr. Clark's back.

"I know you feel like you're ready to take on the world after what you've been through, but your body still needs a bit more time to heal properly," Dr. Clark cautioned as he took his otoscope out of his pocket and leaned in to take a look in Gage's right ear. He then walked to the other side of the bed, away from Sydney, to examine Gage's left ear.

As Dr. Clark leaned down to peak into his otoscope, he whispered, "She's waited this long for you; one more day isn't going to make much difference," and then winked as he stood up.

"Yeah, Doc, I think you're right. The longer I stay here, the sweeter my homecoming is likely to be." He was speaking to the doctor, but his gaze was locked with Sydney's. It was all he could do not to drool with anticipation, as he read the 'come hither' message in her eyes.

"I'll be back to check on you tomorrow," Dr. Clark said as he strode to the door. Laying a hand on the door handle, he called over his shoulder, "Until then, try to get some rest."

As he pulled the door shut behind him, he couldn't suppress a chuckle. He knew he was wasting his breath. As turned on as those two were, neither one of them would be getting any sleep tonight.

Sydney walked over to the bed, but Gage held up a hand to stop her, like she was a vampire and he was waving a cross.

"Hold it right there," he warned.

The hurt and rejection in her eyes nearly killed him.

"Syd, please don't take this the wrong way, but you have to go. Now."

Her big doe eyes welled up with tears.

"Oh, honey, I don't want you to go. What I want is to throw you onto the nearest flat surface and not let you up for a week, but you heard the doctor. I'm stuck here until tomorrow and if I have any hope of getting through the next twenty-four hours with even a shred of my sanity left, you cannot be in this room. Hell, even after you leave, I won't be able to think about anything but you."

She nodded and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "OK, I'll go. It helps to know you'll hate waiting as much I will. Do you think we should risk a good-bye kiss?"

"Absolutely. I'm headed for the coldest shower of my entire life as soon as you're out that door anyway."

She wasted no time gliding into his arms and pressing her lips to his. Reining in her racing libido wasn't easy, but she managed by closing her eyes and picturing the gigantic hole in his sock.

"Are you sure you're going to miss me tonight? That kiss was a little—tame."

"You have your ways of dealing with waiting and I have mine," she answered, smiling mysteriously as she backed toward the door. For her, walking backwards was a way to hold on to him, at least with her eyes, until the door finally separated them completely.

Gage, however, considered it an act of pure mercy on her part that the last vision he had of her wasn't of her exquisitely sculpted butt. Oh, it was going to be a long night.

---End Chapter 1

(Chapter 2 will be posted tomorrow and Chapter 3 the day after that. Daily updates! No waiting! Merry Christmas!)