Always Be Prepared
"So, you liked everything?" asked the owner of "Ruisseau", the little restaurant in Paris in which Sydney and Vaughn were having their first date. Syd could hardly believe how well it had gone. They were a little awkward at first, but a little time and a lot of wine had helped the situation.
She smiled up at the man, "C'etait tres bon, merci."
"Parfait," Vaughn agreed.
"So, uh, it is too late for you to set out for avenue. And, uh, you had much to drink," the man continued, "Upstairs, I have an inn. And tonight, you are my guests, please take your time." He left a key on the table and left them alone.
The key lay untouched for a moment as they both internally panicked. The nearly empty restaurant and romantic music added weight to the situation. Vaughn was first to recover, "Did you ask him to do that?"
Sydney's eyes widened slightly as she took in the implication of his words, "There are so many issues with this I don't know where to start."
Vaughn held up his hand, "Hold on a second. I think we should have an open mind about this."
"An open mind?" Syd repeated incredulously.
"It would be rude to overlook such a generous offer without proper consideration," Vaughn told her with an eager look and a small smile creeping onto his face.
Sydney peered up from beneath her eyelashes, "I wouldn't dream of it."
"Ok," Vaughn agreed.
"But," Sydney interjected, "There are clearly issues."
"Yes, I don't disagree," said Vaughn smirked.
"Ok," Syd mimicked him.
Vaughn acted quickly to ensure she wouldn't change her mind. He stood up, pocketed the key and took Sydney's hand.
"Vaughn," Sydney said expectantly.
He raised an eyebrow.
"Aren't we even going to talk about this?" she laughed in spite of herself.
"We can talk in our room," he said, tugging on her hand.
Sydney allowed herself to be led up the narrow, spiral staircase, to a door marked 47 in twisted, brass numbers. Vaughn let go of her hand to insert the key, and when the door swung open, motioned for her to enter first.
It looked like they had been given the honeymoon suite. A small foyer led into a living room straight out of a bed and breakfast in the French countryside, but Vaughn headed straight for the bedroom.
Vaughn stopped at the foot of the bed and took her other hand, "Sydney," he began as he pulled her closer.
"Vaughn," Syd stopped him, "You said we would talk, remember."
Vaughn smiled, "And we will."
"Well then, let's talk!" she insisted, letting go of his hands, "What are we doing here? Where does the C.I.A. think we are? What if someone finds out?"
"Sydney, relax!" Vaughn told her, "We're here because we both agreed; it would have been rude to refuse. The agency thinks we're back at the hotel with the rest of the team. Weiss can cover for us if they try to check in. And if it'll make you feel better I can adjust my com so that I can hear him but he can't hear us." Vaughn raised his eyebrows at her.
Sydney looked stared at her shoes for a moment, trying to find something else to object to. She finally settled on, "Handler and asset can't date."
"So we don't tell them," he said immediately, then added cheekily, "You're good at keeping secrets."
Sydney sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, "Alice," she reminded him.
A look of concern spread across Vaughn's features as he sat down beside her, "Look, Syd, I haven't broken up with her, but to be honest, it's been over between us for a long time. It's you Sydney. It has been for quite a while now. And I think you feel the same way."
"And that's another thing," she exclaimed, "We still haven't talked about how we feel at all. I mean one moment we're handler and asset, out on an op, stealing a gyroscope and the next we're having dinner in a French bistro, and somehow you've convinced me to come up to this room with you… "
"I want you to know that I have no expectations. In fact, you can have the bedroom, and I'll just go sleep on the couch. I'll call housekeeping for some extra sheets and blankets and we'll have no problem."
She looked at him apologetically, "It's not that I don't want… It's just… at the very least they'd remove you as my case officer."
"And we wouldn't want that, would we?" said Vaughn in a low voice, "We do good work. We need to stay together."
Sydney could feel their faces drawing nearer to each other involuntarily, "Yes," she agreed, "We do good work…" Fighting against everything her body was telling her, Sydney turned her head abruptly to the other side.
"I'll just, uh, go make the call to get those sheets," Vaughn said, indicating the door with his thumb.
Syd fell backwards on the bed and exhaled loudly as she landed. She lay there for a moment thinking about the impossible situation she was in. Diffusing a ton of C4 explosives in under 30 seconds with a gun pointed to her head- that she could deal with; spending the night in a romantic inn in France with her handler with whom she also happened to be in love- not so much.
She picked herself up and walked to the bathroom to get ready for bed. This presented yet another conundrum; what on earth was she going to wear to bed? She stripped down to her white cotton panties and tank top and figured they would have to do. Syd splashed some water on her face and decided to go say goodnight to Vaughn.
Syd peered around the corner to see Vaughn standing in nothing but his boxers, shaking out a musty-looking duvet. He looked surprised to see her.
"I just thought I'd say goodnight," she explained.
"Ok," he replied, "Goodnight." He laid the blanket on the couch and slipped underneath it. The couch was old and a little small for him, so he sunk into the seam at the back and his legs stuck out at the end.
Sydney giggled and went to sit on the coffee table in front of the makeshift bed. "Vaughn," she said stifling more laughter, "You look ridiculous."
"Well, thanks a lot," he replied.
"No, that's not what I meant. You can't be comfortable there. Come and sleep in the bedroom." She offered.
"It's alright really," Vaughn assured her, "I'm very comfortable here." He snuggled down into the couch to prove his point and sunk down, nearly disappearing in-between the cushions.
Rolling her eyes, Sydney took his hand, pulled him up and marched him into the bedroom and found he did not put up much resistance. When they arrived she demarcated sides of the bed and told him, "Now, you sleep on that side, and I'll sleep on this side. Get it?"
"Got it," answered Vaughn, surprised by her insistence, but listening to her all the same.
They both lay flat on their backs stalk-still, not speaking, and staring at the ceiling. Occasionally they would peer over at each other to see if the other was making any more progress with sleep. Once, they turned their heads at the same time and their eyes met. Still feeling the aftereffects of the nearly two bottles of wine they polished off at dinner, Sydney and Vaughn both burst out laughing.
Syd made a stab at conversation, "So, um, earlier, you were telling me about pool."
Vaughn stopped laughing and answered her, "Yeah, we had a pool table in my college dorm, so a few buddies and I got pretty good."
"Mmhmm," replied Sydney, and they lapsed into uncomfortable silence again.
"This is just stupid," remarked Vaughn, "We have always been perfectly capable of being in the same room together before."
"Never with so little on before," Syd reminded him quietly.
"You have to admit, some of your disguises are little more than that," he said indicating her underwear with a smirk.
Syd's nose scrunched up with laughter as she punched him lightly on the arm.
"Hey! Stay on your own side!" Vaughn reprimanded, taking hold of her wrists playfully.
"Don't make me use my kickboxing on you Vaughn," Sydney warned.
"Oh yeah Bristow?" he retorted, tightening his grip a tad, "I think I could take you."
"You sure, Boy Scout?" Syd taunted.
Neither agent being one to turn down a challenge they immediately engaged in a full-fledged wrestling match. The resulting tussle left them so entangled in the sheets and blankets and laughing so hard that they could barely move.
When they eventually sorted themselves out of the tangled mess, Vaughn turned on his side towards Sydney, hugging his pillow, and said, "Remind me again why nothing is happening between us."
"You're otherwise engaged, the Alliance would have us killed, the C.I.A. would probably fire us," Syd listed off casually.
"Right," he said dejectedly, "All good reasons. It is a shame though."
"Oh yeah?" she said, intrigued.
"Yeah. We do good work together," Vaughn repeated, "I feel certain we would do good work together." His eyes smoldered while she bit her lip in a mixture of happiness and trepidation. They gazed into each other's eyes for a moment, each certain the other was imagining the same thing. Vaughn jumped suddenly as the forgotten com in his ear suddenly buzzed with Eric Weiss's voice. Sydney was confused until he explained, "Weiss just thought he would let us know base ops was checking in and he confirmed we were with the rest of the team at the hotel."
Jerked out of her reverie now, Syd simply nodded and said, "We should probably get to bed then."
Vaughn closed his eyes with a sigh and nodded in agreement, "Goodnight, Syd."
"Goodnight, Vaughn," she replied.
The next morning Sydney woke up inexplicably warm and happy. She looked over to find herself encroaching dangerously close to her handler's side of the bed. After moving over, she checked her watch and nudged Vaughn awake. He awoke slowly and said groggily, "What was that, Alice?"
Sydney winced and shook his shoulder more forcefully, "Vaughn, you need to wake up now. We need to meet the team at the airport in less than an hour. I'll meet you in the living room."
He came to his senses, for the most part, and began dressing in his clothes from yesterday. "Mmk," groaned Vaughn, squinting at the bright morning light flooding through the windows in the living room, " 'm ready."
Sydney snorted, "You might want to put your pants on," she advised him.
Vaughn looked extremely surprised to find himself standing in a complete suit minus the pants. Syd grabbed them off the arm of the couch Vaughn had been intending on sleeping on the previous night. As she threw them to him, several things fell out.
Sydney bent down to help Vaughn pick up the contents of his pockets. Vaughn had grabbed his wallet and the key to their room, but Sydney resurfaced with his badge, which she handed to him, as well as something else. Her eyebrows went way up when she felt the tiny rubber ring within the small, flat, square package. She held the offending packet just out of Vaughn's reach and confronted him, "You were this sure you would need one of these?"
Vaughn was unabashed, "No," he replied smoothly, "But I'm a Boy Scout, remember? Always Be Prepared."
A/N: I have wanted to write this since the first time I saw this episode, so I thought I'd finally give it a try. Originally I was going to have something happen between them, but I didn't want to take any weight away from their kiss in Phase 1… Hopefully it was still cute and enjoyable! Let me know what you think!