A/N: This is the sequel to AND THE BLUEBIRD MAY FALL (but you really don't need to have read it to understand Forty-Seven). The ratings gonna jump back and forth from PG to PG-13. Lemme just explain how this is gonna work! Next chapter, we'll find out what exactly the mission was, with more references to 47, of course! And the chapter after that, one more major event happens before jumping to the future, where Sydney and Vaughn are married with a daughter, Portia. That's where 47 really beginnings come into play. There's plenty of action and adventure with more Syd/Vaughn romance as well as some interesting scenes between Jack and Irinia plus a there are two or three new characters, one that will change Portia's life, one that will change Weiss's life, and one that will shock the entire Bristow/Vaughn family. I know the whole "Syd and Vaughn have a baby thing" has been done before but I can definitely say that it has never been done like this and you'll be in for more twists and turns and ups and downs than a roller coaster. Sounds intriguing? Well, just read and review!
SD-6 was not destroyed.

Sydney and Vaughn were not together.

There was a mission that went horribly wrong.

And she was left with a broken body and spirit

With no one to pick up the pieces.
The light powder flew in her face and created an uncomfortable paste on her forehead. Her hands move quickly and deadly against the black bag as her thoughts rambled through the events of the day and weeks prior to all of this. She was angry and as much as she tried to fight it, this wasn't a place for anger. She needed to go home and cry or do something but she couldn't bring herself to leave the area. As far as she knew, most of the agents were packing up and going home to their normal lives to only wake up again and go through the front doors of the CIA headquarters. But not her. Oh, no. She was forced into hiding on day one of her CIA job, being part of the real CIA and she wanted nothing more than to be a normal part of the State Department. She knew that she wasn't suppose to be there. Her life was in danger by being there. Her fists flew more rapidly now at the bag and each punch hurt a little bit more inside the heavy boxing glove. She was sure that her knuckles were raw with blood and exposed skin. Every ounce of sweat pouring down on her body reminded her of the blood she had felt..the blood on her hands. She punched the bag once more and felt a figure come upon it.

"Hey." He cooed softly, "How are you doing?"

She couldn't stop. If she stopped, reality would set in. She would be forced to deal with everything that happened. With their deaths, with his murder and her suicide. She would be forced to come to reality with her relationship and her lies. "Fine." She kept swinging, not bothering to miss a beat with conversation.

He sighed, completely unsatisfied with that answer. He was dressed in his gym clothes, sweat drenched from his run and doing his weight training. Michael Vaughn had been there for hours now and was on his way home, to be with girlfriend but as he saw Sydney in the corner, all of the plans were dashed. He couldn't leave her when she was like this. "You wanna spar?" He knew that if he left her there she was going to self destruct. He leaned into the bag a little bit and put his taped hands on top. He had beat the crap out of another punching bag then moved to go running on the treadmill and somewhere in the midst of it all, spotted Sydney. He had attempted to keep his distance from her as she was filling more and more of his mind. Everything reminded him of her and it ached inside for him to return to his girlfriend every night, who was becoming more of a ball and chain than a lover.

A hard punch was delivered to the black bag and she straightened up. "Lemme get these off and we'll go for it." She promptly placed her hand between her finely toned legs and pulled hard, expelling her hand from the tight red glove. Sure enough, the tape had frayed and exposed her skin, which was cracked and bleeding. She didn't care. Her blood was just another liquid. She felt no pain or no concern over the red spreading over her hands. Vaughn jumped into the act and grabbed her other hand. He pulled her glove, taking a slight step back. She looked at him hard with the steel that ran through the base of her eyes. Her face betrayed no emotion and all she could do was stare blankly with a look nothing short of complete concentration. He watched the blood expel itself over her porcelain skin but said nothing. It concerned him more than anything that she noticed and didn't care.

"There ya go." He pronounced faintly. His brow was drenched with and his gray t-shirt was now turned near black in the sweat doused areas. His green eyes sparkled with a fading energy and growing concern for his asset. A slight smile crossed over his lips as he thought the many daydreams he had of them finally being together but he quickly masked it with utmost concern. It was never going to happen, so he should have banished the thought from his mind. The swinging bag became a place for him to rest his body as she scanned everything over, letting her rosin filled hand brush over her forehead and sweep away the stray hairs that had fallen during her stint.

Her brown eyes were clouded over with thoughts from a previous mission that had left too many questions unanswered and too little pieces left out of the puzzle. It had caused strain in her relationship with everyone she knew, including Will and Francie. Life was getting far to difficult for her and all she could do was melt against the terror of the world that threatened to disembowel her on a daily basis. Sydney Bristow was fading.

Vaughn sensed this in her but did want to address it head on. He motioned for her to follow across the gray mats to the roped off area for specialized skirmishes. "You gonna take me, Mountaineer?"

"For right now, let's drop the CIA crap." She snapped out of frustration, pulling her shoulders up and down to relax the tensing muscles. Her neck rolled around a bit and she shook out her body.

He knew exactly how to provoke her, "Fine. Let's get it going, Bluebird." He stopped in his tracks and waited for the response and turned around to face her. Her body kept moving towards the roped off area and she looked around. He stepped up to her and bobbed his shoulders up and down. "Let's go."

"You wanna take it, I'll give it to you." And with that, she started to deliver blow after blow. Something in her snapped. She was at full force and had that look to kill in her eyes. She didn't see Vaughn, all she saw was a male opponent that starred rudely at her and made inappropriate attempts to touch her. She wanted to kill him. Every punch, kick and block had her full force behind it.

"Easy! Sydney!" He shouted at her but he knew in his heart she wasn't listening. She had shut him out since she got home from Sicily. She was a different person that refused to be debriefed and became cold towards the world. She had seen something there that had made her push away from the world. She kept taking shots at him that were violent and meant to hurt and break. More sweat poured off of her brow as she narrowed her sights and did a roundhouse kick to his shoulder, sending him crashing towards the side but he quickly regain his balance and as she set up to do a kick once more, brought her down flat on her back. And she stayed there. "Sydney!"

Her tired body melted to the floor and she landed flat out on her back. Her body landed hard on the mat and she felt bruises begin to form. The mats were still hard and made her body go numb. Vaughn, walked over to her, standing only a few feet away and offered his hand to help her up. Her clouded brown eyes only responded with an unnerving blink. "Syd?" His voice cracked with concern. She normally jumped up and started to beat the crap out of him if she fell. That's if and when she fell. But today, all she could do was stare at him with blankest expression face. "Sydney. Cut it out, you're scaring me." He bent over her and offered a hand. But she didn't or couldn't move from her position of flat on her back, starring up at the swallowing gray ceiling. "Sydney?"

She laid on her back and looked up at the ceiling. Her eyes barely blinked and her breath barely moved over her chapped lips. She felt the cold mat beneath her back and the sweat pooling beneath her. Her mind was drifting back to horrible places with all of her training coming undone. Her legs were slightly separated and her arms were flailed out. Her eyes blinked slowly and she starred blankly up at the ceiling. Vaughn quickly came into her view and stood over her. He was talking but his words meant nothing. His perfect rose lips were moving in slow motion and his brow was creased in concern. He offered a taped hand to her but she couldn't move her body at all. Was she paralyzed? No, she could still move her body but it just ached to do so. She could still move if she wanted to but her mind just stopped working. Reality had set in. Her mind quickly flashed back to the last time that she had been knocked down with such force and him standing over her and the threats.

"They died." She said at last and felt herself slipping away from the world. It felt as though her limbs were being tied down, again, and she couldn't escape the heavy material. "I was suppose to save them and they died. It's my fault they're dead."

Everything made sense now but he had to be careful. His eyes looked around the gym in terror and with acute sense. There was no one else there. His toned body leaned over and he crouched down beside her. His hands pulled at her back until she was sitting up, being balanced by his hands. "Can we talk about what happened?"

She looked at him rather helplessly and laughed ruefully. "Ya know, on all the mission I've ever been on, I can count on one hand all of them that have gone SO wrong. And that one, ha, that one takes the cake. I mean, nothing went right at all. It was suppose to be an easy snatch and run but no..he had to make it so difficult. Why is it that every time I get something good going on for me, it gets destroyed," she looked away from him, "or killed. Everyone I love has had something terrible happen to them." She wanted to go on but couldn't bring herself to do so. Instead, she leaned into his shoulder and sat there complete unemotional. "I wish it was a dream." Her body was now officially exhausted. She loved the feeling on his touch on her raw body. He seemed so stable beneath her weathering body. Her blood was running so cold but his touch seemed to make the spots boil.

Vaughn settled down on the ground more firmly. His body was becoming exhausted too but not the same degree as hers. She leaned into his body harder and wrap his arms around her back, tracing invisible circles there. Her body was sweating and rather gross to anyone else but to him, it was only another part of his job. Actually, it wasn't really part of his job. This was him acting out on the feelings he had bottled up for so long. He was her handler but no part of the job description called for said *handling.* "Why don't I take you home?"

"You can't." She said and Vaughn sighed in frustration. She ignored this and rested her head on his shoulder, "It's too dangerous." Her breath slowed as more of his skin touched his. Okay, it wasn't skin. It was a disgusting old t-shirt but it was like an old tattered blanket that a toddler flat out refuses to leave it behind. It was comforting in a strange sort of way.

"Okay." He straightened up a little more and attempted to catch her eye. The building had completely emptied out and they were the only bodies inhabiting the space. "I guess I'll take you to my house then." He knew that his thoughts weren't exactly rational but it did seem like a logical answer. *Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Boy works with girl. Girl has hard day. Boy take girl to boy's house. Girl gets tailed by counter- intelligence agency. Boy and Girl run for boy's and girl's life.* Vaughn smirked to himself as he came to the horrible realizations. His life was not nearly as complicated as hers but it was problematical enough for him.
Reality and life was slowly beginning to reenter her eyes, "No. It won't work," She sighed, "It's bad enough I'm here. I'm going to get caught, Vaughn. I was almost caught in Sicily." The floor felt harder underneath her and she felt foreign in her own form.

He couldn't help but let his eyes get wide, "You almost got caught? Syd, why didn't you tell me?" He wanted to hold her closer and never let her go. He wanted to save her from the evils of the world and take her away from this life that haunted her. He wanted to kiss away her pain and catch her threatening tears with his lips.

She ducked her head for a moment and started to ring her hands together before she looked at him again with teary eyes and simply shrugged her shoulders, "There were so many things that went wrong with that mission."

"We need to get you home." He stated again, not registering her last statement. "You keep extra stuff in your gym bag?" Wig, glasses, clothes, make-up, ID.

"Yeah." She replied simply and pointed across the way to the women's locker room. "I'll go get it and meet you back here?" Vaughn had stood up and turned his back on her and looked across the room like it was going to change or something. He rested his hands on his hips and waited a few heartbeats. Her eyes cascaded over his body, trying to soak in what he looked like. There were very few opportunities that were available for her to really look at him, hard, and analyze him.

"Okay." He said at last and turned around. His eyes begged to ask if she was okay but he knew her better. Even if she wasn't, she would never accept help. He forced his hands into hers and brought her to her feet. Shaking, she got to her feet and inhaled deeply. "Do you want me.." His tone faded off. She wouldn't accept any more help than what she had already received.

With a defiant stride, she walked towards the locker room. She passed the different gray machines that shone harshly in the unkind lighting above. She felt two green eyes upon her retreating form and wanted to smile but she was too depressed to. A sarcastic smirk escaped instead. Vaughn was checking her out. But the hurt from the mission was still there and it still stung at every portion of her body. Sydney Bristow wasn't allowed to be hurt or upset. Everything was suppose to be shut away in little boxes and kept shut. When did the lids start falling off?

She entered the locker room and found her bag, casually thrown near an empty locker. She opened slowly and revealed her usual clothes: a black pants suit with a gray shirt and black heels. Everything was black, white, or gray. The only thing in color in her life, she realized as she dug further, was Vaughn's pair of emerald eyes. She shook her head in absolute disgust. He had a girlfriend, remember stupid? She sighed again and tried to rid her mind of everything that had happened. She quickly found a black tube top with a little handkerchief skirt with a curly red wig and big Jackie-O like sunglasses. Without a second thought, she threw off her powder blue work-out top and threw the spandex material somewhere in the midst of the black bag. Ha, black again.

The running capris went next and the red skirt flowed over her scarred legs. Running shoes were replaced with simple black flip flops. Her hair was bundled up and she was now a red-head. She emptied out her bag and slowly folded everything perfectly. Her work clothes smelled like her perfume and starch, perfectly pressed and in desperate need of folding. Her hands slowly made their way around the material into perfect folds. Her gym clothes came next, soaked with sweat. She placed them gingerly into her bag and followed her clothes with her running shoes. Everything was very mechanical and stiff. If she stopped to think, she would fall into a self made trap. She didn't even hazard with make-up. She knew she would cry with Vaughn.

It only had taken a few to change herself entirely. But she needed a name in case she got caught. Okay, okay. Think Sydney. What would be a cool name? Okay, last name is Tortell..first name is..first name is..Juliet. Juliet Tortell but Jules for short. "Jules" quickly gathered her things and walked out towards Vaughn. She stopped in the mirror and sat into her hip. She gingerly placed her hand on her jutting hip and tossed her hair over her shoulder, "I'm Jules Tortell from West Virginia. I lived there with my mama and my daddy for eighteen years and then I went to New York University with a major in literature and a minor in..a minor in psychology." She let Southern accent replace her dull accent. There we go. She grabbed her bag and pulled it over her shoulder, still feeling the sweat making her clothes stick. She pushed open the heavy door and started to walk across the gym. The familiar swing of her hips was back and the poised turn of her head. As she spotted Vaughn, changed back into his suit in record time, she threw her sunglasses into her hair.

Beforehand, Vaughn had watched her disappear into locker room before retreated in, tearing his clothes off and changing faster than he had ever done in his life. He threw things in his bag, not caring about folding or anything like that. He grabbed his dress pants and hastily put them on, followed by the rumpled white shirt that he buttoned half-heartedly. Honestly, he didn't know that his fingers could move that quickly. He finished and dug into briefcase looking for the one thing that wasn't in his gym bag. He had grabbed his cell phone and dialed an unfamiliar number.

"Will Tippen." A male voice answered with a professional tone.

"Will, hey it's Michael Vaughn-"

"Syd's handler?" He didn't know what to except, "Is everything okay?" The anticipation and dread rose in Will's voice and made Vaughn nervous. "Syd's okay, isn't she? I mean, she didn't-" he gulped and couldn't go on with that sentence.

"No, no. She's okay. She just needs to be um, debriefed and we need to talk some things out about a mission. Just thought I would let you know why she wouldn't be home tonight." Vaughn explained quickly, "So you wouldn't worry."

"Oh." Was the quick and cold response. "Where are you two going? A safe house?" Will was becoming too familiar with CIA lingo.

Vaughn winced, shut his eyes and responded, "My place?"

He could hear the veins in Will's neck pop out and his desire to kill Vaughn increase, "Oh."

"I have to go but I'll have Sydney call you-" CLICK. Will had hung up. Vaughn shook his head and he couldn't really blame him for doing so. Vaughn knew that Will still loved Sydney and knew that it was going to stay that way for a long time.

Vaughn turned his phone off and put it back into his bag. He taped his side, looking for the pager that was always there. He threw his jacket on and secured his gun around his waist. He couldn't take any chances. If he was caught with Sydney at his house, he could be put on suspension, fired, Sydney could be discovered..the list of things that could go wrong just kept going. He shook his head slightly and attempted to banish those fears. He threw his gym bag over his shoulder and held his briefcase in his hands and exited the locker and waited for Sydney. She appeared and looked more breath taking than ever.

"Hey...?" He cooed for the second time today but it was a lead to find out her name. He arched his eyebrows in anticipation.

"I'm Juliet Tortell but call me Jules." Sydney replied, extending her hand and adorning a thick Southern accent, "And y'all are?"

"I'm Michael Vaughn." He shook her hand firmly and didn't let go. Instead, he turned and walked with "Jules" arm in arm out to the parking lot. They walked out of the gym into the parking garage, where she started to look around with wide eyes.

"So where did y'all park?" She grinned and creased her nose.

"Level 4."

"Level 4's a big place." She replied, squeezing her body closer to his and tucked her arm around him. He followed suit and pulled her close. She let her heart flutter for a moment and smiled broadly. A nervous laugh/sigh escaped her lips as she attempted to boxes on the lids in her mind. Her heart was pounding so loudly that she thought her chest was going to explode. Why was she so nervous? It was probably because she had to talk about this thing that she tried to keep hidden for over three weeks now. There was a lot of "stuff" going on in her life and she had attempted to cut her handler out of it entirely. She was in love with him and wanted to fight it as much as possible.

"Spot 47." He smiled back at her. She was absolutely amazing. She had gone from nervous break down to perfect Southern Bell in less than three minutes. "So where are you from, Jules?"

"Oh, I'm just from this little town in West Virginia. Nuttin special about it all! Trust me! What about you, Michael Vaughn?" She tasted his first name on her lips and licked them hungrily.

"Fluery."

"FRANCE? Oh my Gawd! I've always wanted to go there! Oh my G-d!" She smiled and laughed giddily. They reached his car after a few moments of silence. It was black, standard issued but she had only seen his trunk. He unlocked it with the click on his key ring and they collapsed in. "Sorry, I needed to act stupid." She threw her heavy black bag at her feet and starred at it for a moment before looking into his beautiful green eyes that made her knees go weaker than they already were.

He simply laughed, "Yeah well. You made it work."

"Ha. Ha." She put up the wall again. Her elbow rested against the door and her head in her hand. Her eyes flickered again as she caught her reflection in the review mirror. Sydney Bristow was withering away and she was being replaced by these other whores and ditzes. She was never allowed to be intelligent when she went undercover. No, smart women are ignored and they are never looked at twice. *Boys don't make passes at girls who wear classes!* *Men in this world of ours are revered, women are feared or hated.*

It was all this wall came up and she knew that she was almost gone that she heard her mother's voice blaring inside her mind, "I joined them because I wanted a name for myself. I wanted to be my own person. I didn't want to be someone's property but I wanted them to respect me! Do you know what is was like back there? What they wanted me to do? Who they wanted me to become? This, the intelligence world, became my only out. It was the only out for any woman there and I had to, Sydney, I had to or else I would have lived in a shack in outside of Siberia for the rest of my life! Do you know what it is like facing that type of desolate future, Sydney? Knowing that no matter who you know, who you did, you were still faced with that life? The intelligence world was my only way out, Sydney. I became one of the elite. I was the forty seventh woman ever to be accepted in the KGB, the first to gain such upper level clearance. I made it. I beat the odds."

Vaughn had been talking for a while now and she had absolutely ignored him, being lost in her own desolate thoughts. "Syd? You there? You know...you don't have to put up the act anymore. We're safe." He started to pull out and away from the rotting hole that had threatened to consume them both. "Let's talk about this."

"You know," she said softly as she started to buckle her seatbelt, "this is my first time in your car. I've only ever been in the trunk when you stole me away from Kendall." Her eyes bounced around the leather interior. "It's nice." The smile she put on was fake. Everything was an act so tht no one knew what she was thinking. Nothing was allowed to be real anymore. She was an actress and the world her stage. No one would ever understand how degraded she was. She was a hooker, selling herself to the world.

Vaughn pushed his key in the ignition and blushed, "Yeah well."

"I like sitting up here much better." She replied definitely and looked out the window, silently bidding farewell to the parking garage that she never got to see. Her eyes were as wide as a toddler's in a toy store.
"But you know I don't let just anyone in my trunk." His eyes laughed, cleverly masking the hurt he felt. "Can we talk about the op?"

But something interrupted her reply. It was his blasted cell phone. Sydney watched him with interest as he reached into his pocket to retrieve the phone, checking the calling ID and swore in French under his breath, "Vaughn." He replied in his work tone.

"Hey baby."

"Oh, hey." He said in a less than enthusiastic matter and started to glance back and forth between the road and Sydney.

"What's wrong, honey? You sound distract." Alice softly said on the phone, "Everything okay?"

Vaughn pulled out of the parking garage and onto the highway, "Everything's fine."

"You don't sound like yourself, baby."

"Everything's fine." He repeated again, a little firmer.

"What time do you want me to come over for dinner?" Alice chose to ignore this tone and continue on.

"What?" His eyes bulged out of his head and he looked at Sydney with an expression sheer dread. "Tonight's not good."

"Oh? And why not?" the jealous tone had reentered her voice, "Where are you, Michael?"

"I'm on my way home."

"You're not alone." She could really read his thoughts sometimes.

"Baby-" He started and the immediately cringed. Sydney looked at him like a hurt child. He was on the phone with his girlfriend. She smiled a sad little disappointed smile and turned back towards the window and watched with false interest as they emerged into the sunlight. "I have to work tonight." She couldn't help but let the jealousy and the hurt swell in her body. It was just another painful reminder that he had a girlfriend and he was never going to be hers. She was destined to wake up alone for the rest of her life.

"You're not alone." She repeated.

"How do you know that?"

"That thing with your voice. Who's with you?"

Vaughn looked desperately at Sydney, who had resorted to starring out the window. "I'm with some people from work." Sydney looked at him and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm on my way to a meeting." He lied and felt his face grow hot.

"Oh." She replied in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry I doubted you. I'll letcha go to your meeting then. Love you."

"You too." Vaughn replied, officially looking helpless and hung up. "I'm so sorry about that." He said.

"It's okay." She turned back to her window, "It's horrible, isn't it?"

"What?" He was clueless and felt his body beginning to glow red in dread that his love had caught him talking to his girlfriend-wait, wasn't that suppose to be the same person.

Sydney ignored anything odd Vaughn was doing and starting on her little platform, "The lying. It eats away at you until you can't keep track anymore. You start getting your lies mixed up with your aliases. Pretty soon, you're disappearing in a world full of Juliet Tortell's and Anne Ryans. You didn't even keep your lie straight. First you were going home, then you were going to a meeting." He was absolutely speechless. He didn't even realize his critical mistake. "I did that with Francie and she caught me. First I said I was going to a meeting in New York and on my way home, I was coming home from Arizona. And she found the ticket stubs from the Sicily airport." She revealed the first layer of the mysterious mission back to reveal the hurt of a friend. She closed her eyes for a moment and let the sun reflect on her body. "It's horrible."

"Yeah." He sighed, "why don't you shut your eyes for a bit? I'm sure your exhausted from your work-out."

She opened her mouth to protest but promptly decided against it. Her body did hurt and it was exhausted. Her eyes fought to say open for another thirty seconds but they quickly lost the battle.

Vaughn spent the ride resisting his hormonal urges to move the strand of hair out of her eyes or to touch her flawless skin. His eyes were concentrated on the road instead.

The next time her eyes opened, they were stopped outside a tall brick apartment building with perfect little window boxes with flowers adorning the windows. It looked like something out of a fairy tale or out of her dreams. Everything was brick with white freshly painted trim.

"This is home." He said softly to wake his sleeping beauty. His voice was soothing and the worry lines had disappeared from his brow. Watching her peacefully sleep had calmed him substantially.

Her eyes fluttered open and revealed the sight set before her, "This is where you live." A few more blinks set the sight before her in better light.

"This is where I live." He responded with a smile and unbuckled, "C'mon. We better get you inside?" The last part was a neither a question or a statement but anyway, Sydney followed suit and exited the warm little car and her feet hit the pavement of the parking lot. She pulled the rest of her body, suddenly sore and exhausted. He looked at her smiling and grabbed her bag and grabbed his, resting in the backseat. He adjusted the weight on his shoulders and managed to walk towards his door. His body was tired, there no doubt about that.

She ran her hands over her face and mumbled incoherently, "How long was I sleeping for?"

Vaughn had approached and pushed the door open, "C'mon, Jules!" He coached as he entered, carrying both of their bags on his shoulders. For a moment, he forgot how dangerous this whole thing was. She hurried behind him and managed to smile weakly as he opened the second door to the long stair case. He held the door open to her and she walked in, looking up the long, winding staircase that circled over her head. Her mouth dropped open slightly, "I live on the third floor."

"No one you're in such good shape." She managed to gape in her Southern twang. She brushed a fallen piece of hair out of her eyes and stepped aside for him to walk in front of her. Her hands lurched forward to grab her black bag from him.

He glared at her slightly, placing a hand on either one of the bags protectively. It was a gesture to say *not a chance.* "Follow me." And with that, he started to ascend the three flights of the stairs that had become so familiar to him. It was strange to hear Sydney's footsteps behind him.

Finally, they reached his floor. One more door was pushed open and she followed him closely down the hallway to the left and the third door on the right, he slid a key into the lock, turning it open. He pushed the door open and threw the bags on the side of the hallway. Pride began to swell in his chest as he looked at his place. In front of him was the hallway that led to the rest of his area. First door on the left was the kitchen, with a window cut out to see the rest of the living and dinning room. First door on the right was nothing more than a closet. Following down the hallway, there was a small dining room that followed directly into living room. Off of the living room was one more half of a hallway that led to the bathroom and his bedroom. Pride was quickly replaced by absolute dread. He forgot that Alice was suppose to moving in the next day and things were in boxes. The recovery came quite quickly for him as he hurried around the house, tucking random things away. Sydney slowly followed in from the hallway and locked the door securely behind her and just watched him for a moment.

Her eyes were as wide as a child's as she looked around the room, obviously decorated by a man. Things were done in earth tones with both new and used furniture. Actually, they were just well loved and well lived in. His living room there was a beige couch with a brown reclining chair, covered in old newspapers, folded open to the sports sections. Old TV guides laid askew over the oak coffee table set before the television set in the oak stand. A slight smile began to tug on her lips as she entered from the long foyer into the living/dinning room.

There were plants set here and there but they were mostly dying from neglect. A chubby little dog greeted Sydney as she stepped deeper into the house, "Hi. What's your name?" She crouched down and gave the dog a good rub behind the ear. The dog wagged his tail out of joy of attention. The smile still played on her mouth as she straightened up and watched the sunlight stream in from the large glass windows surrounding the living room. It felt warm and inviting as she turned away from the living room on her left and look with interest at the oak table set on the hard wood floors with a forest green area rug.

But the most enjoyable sight was watching Vaughn frantically trying to clean up his bachelor pad, "Vaughn." She spoke softly and her one word made him stop in his tracks in the kitchen, holding a cereal bowl and an empty coffee mug. She looked away from the living area and to the kitchen, connect through the dining room. His body was moving quickly but her voice made him stop dead in his tracks. She rested her arms on the bar overlooking the countertops of the oak kitchen.

"You want to take a shower?" He didn't even bother to hear her response. He set the dishes down and rushed out of the kitchen towards her, awkwardly. It was as though he didn't know how to react to her being in his house. He nodded his head of cornflower colored hair and smiled, abandoning the dishes and ushering her down the hallway, second door on the left.

Her eyes watched each part of the house go by. There were classic photographs all signed MCV hanging down the hallway in black frames with white matting. All the pictures were even in black and white. All shades of gray. Just like her. "Yeah, that would be nice." Her body was tugged along by her handler who was beginning to treat her like she was nine- months pregnant and ready to go into labor any moment. Imagine her going into labor with Vaughn's baby. *WAIT! Sydney! Bad Sydney! Erase thoughts from mind!* She scolded herself and tilted her head down as they reached the bathroom, almost arm and arm.

"Hang on." He touched her arm to stop her and ran into his bedroom (right across from the bathroom) and knelt down in front of his plaid bedspread. She couldn't help but wander in and look at his bedroom. Her sore body rested against the door jam as she watched with interest.

"So this is where your bedroom is." She raised her eyebrows suggestively but it was ignored. His focus was set on something that she couldn't see. He reached deep beneath his bed and groped around to find something. Finally, a look of triumph crossed over his lips as his hands wrapped around the gold paper. He pulled back and sat on his haunches, completing turning away from Sydney. His thoughts were no longer logical and all he could focus on was making Sydney as comfortable as possible. He tore the wrapping paper off and revealed a white box that concealed a white terry cloth robe. He ran back out to the hallway room and presented her with it. "Here." He offered it out to him, "For your shower."

Her jaw had officially dropped open and she had no idea what to say, "Oh..my..thank you." She turned the white terry cloth over and over in her hands as she felt the uncomfortablity, if that's even a word, rise in the house. Her cheeks were becoming flushed and he was starting to get jittery and unable to stand still.

"And I'll get you some sweats and more comfortable clothes, if you want.." His voice trailed off as he motioned with his hands back and forth between the room behind him and the room in front of him.

"Yeah, that'd be great." She smiled a soft little smile, "I'll take that shower and meet you back out in the kitchen." The girly aspect of her mind had officially taken over and was chanting *I'm in Vaughn's house! I'm going to be in Vaughn's shower! Hallelujah!* or something to that nature. Vaughn smiled once more and retreated back into his room. Sydney turned towards the bathroom, already lit by vanity lights and locked the door securely behind her. The bathroom was decorated in black and white tiles. Everything was black. And white. And black. And white. She scoffed at the harsh reality surrounding her but as she started to disrobe, suddenly, the world didn't seem so horrible and closing in. And as she turned on the hot water and stepped into the shower, the world didn't seem like it was going to end that second. And as the sweat began to wash away, the tears started to flow freely for the first time in a long while. Maybe she was fading or maybe, she finally reentering the colored world. Maybe one box had its lid but on the other hand, maybe one just fell off.

NEXT TIME:

"It was probably the ugliest outfit I've ever worn." She laughed a little bit, sinking further into his sweatshirt and feeling his body invisible against it.

"Yeah, but you still looked good in it." *Oh sweet Lord! Did I just say that outloud?* He felt his face burn scarlet red and blotchy. All he wanted to do was to take that back! He had a girlfriend for heaven's sake and he was obviously flirting with the one person in this world that he wasn't allowed to.

His situation of pure mortification only endured as the one person that would kill them both in a heartbeat, managed to open the door.

**************************************************************************** **Okay! So, what do you think? Please review! The more reviews I get, the quicker I update! I take them very seriously so please!!!