Freedom
Following the insanely brief debrief, Sydney was back in the cell, stretched out on the cot. Victory was so close that it sent tingling feelings throughout her body. A few minutes passed and Sydney heard several sets of footsteps coming towards the cell. This is it, she told herself, I'm free.
Sydney sat up and ran a hand through her hair before the people stopped in front of the cell. Her heart sank when she saw that it was just a group of guards. One of the guards stepped forward and opened the cell.
"Come with us," he said after he had opened the door.
Shivering, Sydney wrapped her arms around herself as she stood and left the cell for the millionth time that day. A couple of the guards stayed behind her while the other stayed ahead of her.
Sydney was led to a small area in a large room with tiled walls and a tiled floor. There was a drain in the floor and a showerhead on the wall. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to convince herself that she was not going to be exposed in front of people she wasn't familiar with for the third time that day. The guard who had unlocked the door spoke loudly.
"Get undressed, leave your clothes on the floor, then step under the showerhead and the water will come on automatically."
Sydney looked the guard in the eye as she said, "I'm guessing I'll be watched during this whole process."
"Your guess would be correct," the guard replied curtly, but a wave of sympathy passed over his face and Sydney felt a bit relieved that the guards were just doing their job rather than jumping at the chance to see a woman stripped of everything save a thin shred of dignity.
Sydney nodded meekly and undressed silently, her gaze focused on the floor. She tossed everything in a pile on the floor as the guard had instructed, then made her way over to the showerhead. Fearing the worst, that the water may be freezing, she crossed her arms over her chest to spare herself the brunt of it.
As she expected, when the water was turned on, it was cold. She still gasped in surprise, and couldn't stop herself from moving to the side, away from the brutally chilling assault.
"It'll warm up in a minute," one of the guards told her, and Sydney bit back the urge to tell him to fuck off—or something less direct. Either way, if they *had* to watch her, they could at least be quiet so that Sydney could perhaps pretend that they weren't really there.
Sydney tentatively reached a hand under the water and found that it was at least a tad lukewarm. She stood underneath the showerhead again, a soft sigh escaping her lips as the water beat down her back. She tilted her head back and the water coursed down her shoulders, arms, chest, and legs.
The guards *had* to be enjoying this on some level.
Sydney lifted her arms, knowing full well what else was being lifted in the process, and combed her hands through her hair. She sincerely hoped that the hard water might aid in removing some of the grease in her hair as well as the sweat and grime on her body.
One of the guards spoke, and when he did, he was stammering worse than Marshall on a particularly stressful day. "Um, would you—uh—would you like some—er—uh—some soap?"
Sydney couldn't help it. She grinned broadly as she turned towards the guard who had addressed her. "Sure."
"Okay, well—uh—I have some—um—here—somewhere. Hold on." The guard began to search his pockets when the more articulate first guard who had been the one to open the cell door produced a still-wrapped bar of soap from his own pocket.
Sydney fully expected the guard to unwrap the soap and walk it over to her, but he merely stood with the package in his outstretched hand. Masking her disapproval of the guard's lack of manners, Sydney let her hands drop to her sides and sauntered over to him. She stood electrifyingly close to him and purposely brushed his palm with her fingers as she grasped the wrapped bar of soap. As coyly as she could, she opened the thin cardboard box in which the soap resided and seductively placed her empty palm under the opening of the box and let the soap slide onto it. She dropped the empty box into the guard's hand and ran a finger along his palm.
Sydney swore the guard took a sharp inhalation of breath.
"Thank you," she told him, batting her eyelashes and giving him a coquettish smile.
"You're welcome," the guard replied, his response a bit breathy.
Sydney reveled in the momentary victory and nearly sashayed back to the shower. She let the water beat down on her for a few moments, simultaneously creating a wet environment for the soap to lather up and letting the guards prepare themselves for what they knew was coming. Sighing softly, Sydney began washing up.
This, of course, produced more sharp intakes of breath.
"Shampoo?" the stuttering guard offered after Sydney was done with the soap, approximately half an hour of sharp intakes of breath later.
"Please," was Sydney's reply.
The stuttering guard produced a bottle from the pocket on the inside of his jacket and walked over to Sydney to hand it to her. Sydney thanked him and washed her hair quickly, not wanting to leave her arms raised longer than she absolutely had to do so.
When she was finished, she looked over at the guards, pouted, and asked, "Do you have a towel I could use?"
One of the guards had his hands behind his back and quickly brought them in front of him. In his hands, was a towel. He tossed it to Sydney who used it to pat herself dry and, of course, merit some more sharp inhalations from the guards. When she was through, she wrapped it around herself, mindful that it didn't cover much, and pranced over to the guards.
The articulate guard spoke. "We'll lead you to some clean clothes and you can get dressed."
Sydney perked up considerably. She felt as if she were a starving waif who had been invited to a feast.
"After that, you'll be escorted back to your cell."
Sydney glanced down at the ground, her shoulders slumping a bit. "I knew there had to be a catch."
"Isn't there always?" the guard said with a smirk.
Sydney looked up at him and held his gaze. "No," she said finally, "Some people just have more bad luck than others."
"In that regard," he began, "today must be your lucky day."
"Thank you," Sydney started, prepared to launch a clever retort, "for having a *shred* of humanity." With that, she started walking after the other guards who had already begun heading to the room with the clothes.
The articulate guard struggled to find something to fight back with, but he realized that he had gone too far with what he had said. As he joined the others, he tried to imagine what Sydney must have been going through, and felt more awful than he already did.
"Listen," he called to her as she kept walking, "I apologize for what I said. It was out of line and I'm sorry I said it."
Sydney didn't answer right away as she listened to the other guards snickering. After a moment, she said, "We've all done the foot-in-mouth thing. But only some of us actually realize we've gone too far, and very few of those people will acknowledge their mistake."
The guard had obviously expected something along the lines of "It's fine," or "Apology accepted." Having received neither one, he sighed heavily and sulked a bit.
Sydney grinned.
They arrived at the room with the clothes and Sydney dressed hurriedly under the watchful eyes of the guards. She used the towel to help dry her hair a bit, then followed the guards back to her cell. She sat down on the cot and watched all but one of the guards leave. The one who stayed hadn't said a word during the whole charade. Sydney raised an eyebrow pointedly at him.
"I just wanted to say that I really did not enjoy what happened a little while ago," he told her.
"You didn't?" Sydney asked, suppressing a giggle. "Honey, you're making me feel bad."
The guard's eyes widened, then a smile spread across his face as he understood what she meant. "What I was trying to say was that I didn't enjoy the fact that we had to—well—chaperone you through all of that and weren't able to give you any privacy."
Sydney nodded approvingly. "Good, because you would have made me feel self-conscious for the next time I have to strip in front of someone." She winked at him.
The guard smiled again. "You won't have to."
Sydney raised an eyebrow again.
The guard struggled to explain himself while Sydney hid a grin. "I mean, you won't have to do it *here*—you're leaving sometime later tonight."
"I am?" Sydney asked in surprise, feeling her eyes fill with tears.
The guard simply nodded, then walked off down the hall. Sydney didn't stop the waterfall of tears that rushed down her cheeks. She was finally getting out of here.
"Freedom," she said aloud. She realized what a precious commodity it was and now it was within her reach. She flopped back on the cot, looking up at the ceiling.
Freedom.
Sydney was sleeping when Kendall arrived. He told himself he wasn't going to feel a bit of sympathy towards her because he really wasn't that kind of person. But, seeing her curled up into a ball and sleeping peacefully, Kendall realized that retaining his typical demeanor would be impossible.
He unlocked the door to the cell and Sydney sat up almost instantly. The fact that she couldn't sleep soundly because of the conditions she was currently having to endure actually pained him a bit. Here was the best agent the CIA had ever had being treated horribly. He sighed a little, his own eyes softening as he gazed into Sydney's bright, dark amber eyes. He sat down beside her on the cot after closing the cell door.
Sydney wasn't sure how to act. Kendall had always been a hard-ass and yet here he was, sitting next to her, and actually appearing to look regretful of everything that had taken place. She folded her hands in her lap and stared straight ahead, waiting for him to speak.
Kendall cleared his throat a bit and said, "I just wanted to tell you personally that you've been cleared of any suspicion involving you being a part of an enemy organization."
Sydney scoffed. "It's about time."
Kendall chuckled and Sydney instantly felt comfortable. "Your father, Mr. Tippin, and Agent Vaughn are waiting for you in the rotunda."
"Okay," Sydney said.
"Shall we go?" Kendall asked as he stood up.
A grin spread across Sydney's face. "We shall."
Kendall opened the door of the cell and walked out into the hall. Sydney followed him and they walked side-by-side. They rounded the corner that led to the rotunda and Sydney stopped short at the scene in front of her.
"What the"
A/N: Oooo Guesses? Hehe. Okay people, I have finals coming up in another week (next week is Dead Week), and I also have two mega-massive (to use my French teacher's term) projects for AP US History and AP Chem to do. One's worth 300 points, the other 200, so uh I'll have to take this weekend off in terms of writing fanfiction, so I hope you enjoyed these two chapters;x Oh, and don't forget to review;) Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far!