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Chapter Four:
Playing the Part

Sydney scanned over the piece of paper before her. "Oh god," she groaned, rolling her eyes.

"What is it?" Vaughn asked, peering over her shoulder.

Sydney thrust the sheet at him. "We get to go on the bonding walk today," she said, her voice dripping with antipathy.

"While on your walk aim to learn five new things about your partner," Vaughn read aloud. "Are they serious?"

"Do you think that this place actually works for real couples?" Sydney asked. "Because these activities…"

Vaughn shrugged. "They obviously have some effect. The place is still open and people still pay to come here."

"Yeah, pay to get help by people who are trained by a criminal."

Vaughn just grinned. "What ever works, Syd."


The walk turned out to be perfectly timed. Having gone through Perdita's website extensively the previous day, Sydney and Vaughn were now able to start putting names to faces- as well as identifying those whose picture did not appear on the site.

As well as complete their scheduled activity.

"So," Vaughn started lightly, "tell me something that I don't know about you."

Sydney gave him a look. "Why don't you just make something up?"

"Because I am curious. What don't I know about you?"

"It's not me you need to know about, it's Holly," Sydney retorted. "And since you know as much about her as me, I think that you can come up with something. That's what I'm doing with Sam."

Vaughn raised his eyebrows. "So what has Sam been hiding from Holly?"

"Well, for a start, he still yearns for his childhood teddy bear and he's recently signed up for a folk dancing class," Sydney replied, her face straight.

Vaughn paused for a second. "You wouldn't."

Sydney shrugged. "I might."

"But—"

"There's one," Sydney cut him off. "She's not on the site." Vaughn followed her gaze.

"Her name is Deanna…supposedly," he said and Sydney shot him a questioning look. "She was running the martial arts class," he explained.

"How skilled was she?" Sydney murmured as they passed her.

"I couldn't say. It was pretty basic stuff. Not exactly something that would show off her moves."

Sydney tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "We'll have to give her name to Nadia and Weiss."

"Speaking of which," Vaughn glanced at his watch. "We should call as soon as we're done. See if they've got anything on Clay…or whatever his name is."


"We've still got nothing on Clay," Weiss's voice came from Sydney's mobile, sitting on the coffee table in front of them, set on loudspeaker. "We really need a picture, so we can run it through our facial recognition database."

"We're working on that," Sydney replied. "But Clay didn't make an appearance on the bonding walk."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "The what?"

"Don't ask," Vaughn said.

Weiss let out a snort of laughter. "Bonding walk? What sort of a place is that joint? Don't tell me that you have to sit around in circles and chant mantras as well?"

"I'd rather that than group therapy," Sydney said. "Or couples therapy," she added, referring to the session that she and Vaughn were having that afternoon.

"And don't even think about jumping in with some smart comment," Vaughn said quickly.

"Wasn't going to."

"Yeah, right," Sydney said. "Do you have anything else for us?"

"Actually I do. You two are going to get some company down there."

Sydney and Vaughn glanced at each other. "Who?" he asked.

"Heard along that grapevine that Perdita's was hiring a new counsellor, and as it turns out our mate Outrigger is extremely experienced in that field."

"He got the job?"

"Yup. Should be arriving very soon."

Sydney could not help but feel conflicted. She was relieved that she and Vaughn would no have some back up, that they were no longer in this increasingly risky situation on their own.

But on the other hand, their aliases. Their pretending to be married and that marriage supposedly being in trouble, for some reason she did not want anybody she knew to have a chance to observe that. This mission, there was something almost personal about it, and she didn't need the extra stress of worrying what a third party might think about what was going on.

"Anyway," Weiss was saying, "I should probably go."

"Yeah," Vaughn said. "We'll contact you soon."

As a click from the other end was heard, Sydney reached across and shut her phone.

"That's good news," Vaughn said. "Having Dixon here, that's a bonus."

"Hmm," Sydney glanced at her watch. "We should go. Our session starts in five minutes."


Vaughn shifted in his seat, averting his gaze from Sydney. Not just to keep up the pretence of Holly and Sam. But because he could not bring himself to do so. He had felt uncomfortable as soon as he and Sydney had entered the room. The last time he had been in a situation such as this, it had been with Lauren, after he discovered…

"So," the counsellor, who had introduced herself as Gabby, said. She was actually legit, her photo had appeared on the website numerous times. "I heard that you missed your martial arts session yesterday, Holly."

"Uh," Sydney shifted in her seat. "Yeah, I did."

"Do you mind telling myself and Sam why?"

"Um, I had a phone call that I needed to make. For work."

"I assume that this phone call was important."

"Fairly," Sydney paused. "Am I in trouble for skipping the class?"

"No," Gabby said. "You are here voluntarily and whether you attend the scheduled activities is your decision. What I am interested in is what drove you to the decision you made."

"It was just a call that I had to make," Sydney said. "My work is important."

Gabby gave a small nod and then looked at Vaughn. "What about you, Sam?"

Vaughn blinked. "What about me?"

"How do you feel about Holly missing the session?"

Vaughn glanced at Sydney quickly, her expression reading 'Go for it.' He drew in a deep breath. "Well, it's nothing new. Holly's work has always come first."

"That is not true," Sydney broke in loudly.

"Holly," Gabby spoke up. "Let's give Sam a chance to speak." She turned to Vaughn. "Please continue."

"She had always worked hard. In fact that was one of the things that attracted me to her- how dedicated she was to her job. But as time passed Holly started spending more and more hours in the office. I barely get to see her these days. When it comes to Holly, it's all about her job."

"As opposed to it all being about you," Sydney muttered.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Vaughn demanded.

Gabby looked at Sydney. "Holly?"

Sydney sighed. "My life may rotate around my job, but our marriage revolves around him and what he wants."

"Holly, I—"

"No! You decide what colour to paint the kitchen, what restaurant we go to…ugh!" Sydney shook her head. It was like she was really was Holly. "It sounds so petty…all those little things."

"What about the big things?" Gabby probed.

Sydney took a few seconds, running a hand through her hair. "He lied to me," she whispered.

"About what?" Vaughn asked, taking his cue perfectly.

"About having a child," Sydney shot back. "Before we got married, you told me that you wanted kids, but now…you refuse to even talk about it."

"I just don't think that now is a good time to start a new family," Vaughn said.

"You've been saying that for years," Sydney shot back bitterly.

"Well, maybe if you stopped spending so much time at the office, I would change my mind."

"You lied to me!" Sydney cut in, her voice low. "You betrayed—"

She cut off suddenly. Those words, they were no longer coming from Holly's mouth, they were coming from hers. She closed her eyes briefly. Why was she doing this? She and Vaughn were moving past everything that had happened, weren't they?

"Ok," Gabby's gentle voice broke into Sydney's thoughts. "I think that we should call it a day."

"Already?" Vaughn asked sounding surprised.

Gabby nodded. "I don't want to completely drain you emotionally in your first session. But keep in mind what was said. Your words, they are the stepping stones to your progress."

As the two of them stepped outside, Sydney inhaled deeply, thankful for the crisp and fresh air.

"Well, I think that we did pretty well in there," Vaughn said, tucking his hands into his pockets. "Convincing enough."

Sydney nodded. It had certainly been convincing…too convincing perhaps. Her emotions, her words…they had all been just a little to real for her liking.