Chapter 12

When Sydney woke up the next morning, she found a little note from Francie on her bedside table. She must have put it there the previous evening, but it was so late when Sydney had gotten in from Italy, she had just ran to bed.

The note was saying that Daniel Hecht, the guy Francie had set her up with, had called, wanting to know when Sydney would be free to go out. He was supposed to call back today.

Sydney winced. What had she been thinking when she agreed to that? Now, more than ever, wasn't a good time in her life to hop into a relationship. Yes, she would definitely have to decline his invitation, she thought as she began to get dressed for a new day at work.

She sighed at the thought of the day ahead. She was going to have to endure debriefing at SD-6 first, then at the warehouse for the CIA. Double the work. At least both meetings wouldn't last very long, as the mission in Tuscany had been quick and uneventful.

Today would be her first debrief with Vaughn… It felt strange being now in this position after the way they met. At first he was just this guy, supposedly named Mark, who spoke bad Slovak. She couldn't help but smile at the memory. How cute was he, embarrassed by his mistake? She still couldn't believe she had kissed him. And knocked him out. Twice. She blushed a little recalling those events, but she turned really red when she realised he had flirted with her. Was that for the mission's sake? And what must he think of her now? She had flirted back and had even given him, not only a phone number, but her REAL phone number! She just hoped he would never notice…

It was shortly after 9:00am when Weiss barged into Vaughn's office.

"Hey Mike! How long have you been here?"

"A while," Vaughn answered without looking up from the file he was reading.

"How about our habitual morning coffee? I'll go get two."

"No. Thanks, but I'm not in the mood."

Weiss sat down in front of his friend's desk.

"Is this bad mood in any way related to what happened yesterday?"

Vaughn stayed silent. Eric didn't need any other answer.

"Mike, maybe we should talk about your… about the way you feel toward Sydney Bristow."

Vaughn finally lifted his eyes to meet his friend's.

"There's nothing to talk about, alright?"

"Mike, I think you like her. Am Y wrong?"

The ringing of the phone saved Vaughn. His hand on the handle, he said:

"I have to take this."

"Okay, but we'll have to talk about this later."

Weiss got up and was about to leave when Vaughn called him back:

"Hey Weiss, would you mind coming with me to Agent Bristow's debrief later?"

"What time?"

"6:00pm, at the warehouse."

"I'll be there if you agree to have that talk with me."

Surprisingly, Vaughn nodded.

"Okay."

For once, Sydney was already waiting when Vaughn and Weiss arrived at the warehouse that evening. If she was surprised, Vaughn noticed she didn't let i| show.

His heart beating faster than he would have wanted it to, Vaughn stood in front of Sydney and began:

"Sydney, this is Agent Eric Weiss. He saved your life yesterday. I thought you should meet him."

"Hi," said Weiss as"he shook her hand.

"Hi. You saved my life?" she asked, puzzled.

"Well, I…"

"I'll explain," Vaughn said, looking at an embarrassed Eric. "While you were in Tuscany… we got0the word on Echelon that SD-4, to fulfill Sloane's request, were going to take you down at the airfield."

Sydney was totally taken aback.

"What?"

"Yeah. Since there was no way to contact you, I wanted to have a team in place to extract you as soon as you got there."

Vaughn paused and he and Eric exchanged a meaningful look. Before he could go on, Sydney stated:

"I would have been exposed."

"We would have sent you into the WPP."

"That was Sloane's way of knowing if I was involved with the CIA," she said pensively.

"Exactly."

"Go on."

Vaughn sighed and continued:

"B}t Weiss noticed how convenient it was that we learned about this on Echelon. He realised SD-6 would have you killed only if we did something, only if we tried to protect you. Even Lambert agreed and-"

"Lambert? What does he still have to do with this?" Sydney interrupted, seemingly not too happy.

Vaughn cringed.

"Devlin wants him to supervise my work."

Sydney made a face but said nothing. As long as Vaughn was the one she was in direct contact with, she didn't mind. For now.

"Anyway, Lambert agreed with Weiss. I still didn't want to take that risk. But I had no choice. So we did nothing. And you left Italy unharmed."

Sydney stayed silent for a moment, pondering over that information.

"So I guess now Sloane thinks I'm loyal to SD-6. That means the real work can begin."

"Yes. But not with me."

Both Sydney and Eric looked at him, totally taken by surprise.

"What do you mean, Mike?" Weiss was able to ask after a few seconds.

"I mean I will resign as Sydney's handler. And I will recommend that you replace me."

"Mike, no! Why would you resign?"

"Eric, since I've been assigned to this case I've kept on failing my missions. I've endangered Sydney's life one too many times. I have to quit before it's too late."

Him having inappropriate feelings for his asset being further reason.

"Won't you even bother to ask my opinion?" Sydney asked abruptly.

"My decision is made."

"Agent Vaughn, maybe for you this case is only a temporary assignment, some dossier you have to work on. But my life, my future depends on the work we are doing now. I need someone that I can count on. And I happen to trust you."

"But you shouldn't. Sydney, you would be dead if I had had my way."

"Agent Vaughn, you agreed to be my handler. You can't quit. Not now."

Vaughn was about to reply when his cell phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID, but did not answer the call. He put it on a nearby crate and continued:

"Sydney, Devlin was right when he chose Lambert to be your handler. I should have-"

His cell phone ringing once again interrupted him. Like a moment before, he looked at the caller ID but didn't answer. Weiss was looking at him curiously, so Vaughn mouthed: "Alice". Why would she be so persistent? She had never done that before. A second later the phone made a little noise indicating he had a message, and Vaughn, having a bad feeling, said:

"I'm just going to take the message. Sorry."

The others nodded and he walked away a few steps, his phone against his ear.

"Agent Weiss, I should thank you for saving my life."

"I was only doing my job…" Weiss replied modestly, cheeks flushed.

"I want Vaughn to remain my handler, but I don't mean I don't want you, I just…"

Weiss shook his head.

"I know. Don't worry about it."

She smiled briefly and glanced at Vaughn who was still on the phone, looking pale.

"Uh, Agent Bristow…?" Eric said, hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

Weiss extracted a yellow piece of paper from his pocket.

"Did you write this?"

Sydney, puzzled, looked at the paper. This was the piece of paper on which she had written her phone number and had given to Vaughn in Slovakia….

"Yes…" she replied, brow furrowed.

She was about to ask why when Vaughn started speaking on the phone.

"Honey? Are you okay? … Oh my god… Yes, I'll be right there. Just… be strong and wait for me, okay? … Bye."

Seeing the look on his friend's face, Weiss asked him:

"What's going on?"

"Alice's father just died. Heart attack," Vaughn answered rapidly.

"Oh, no…"

"I've got to go. Can you finish the debrief?"

"Yes… sure. Tell Alice I'm… I'm sorry for her loss."

"Okay."

Vaughn shot a brief look at Sydney who didn't know what to say and left the warehouse. When she heard the door close behind him, Sydney asked, although she already knew the answer:

"Who's Alice?"

And Weiss replied:

"Mike's girlfriend."

Later that evening, Sydney was sitting in bed, trying to put the finishing touches to her essay, but her thoughts kept drifting to Vaughn. Was he really going to resign?

Just imagining that eventuality, she felt a wave of disappointment washing over her. This couldn't be happening. Having to bring down a worldwide terrorist organisation was hard enough without having to deal with a new handler. Yes, Weiss seemed nice, but from the beginning there had been something in Vaughn's eyes that had led her to believe in him. Led her to believe in the possibility of eradicating all the SD cells.

She couldn't let that happen. Having a handler who actually cared that much about her well being was such a luxury. Looking at him while he was telling her about the Tuscany events, she had still been able to see worry in his eyes. Any other handler might have wanted to risk her life for the CIA's benefit. But not Vaughn. That's why she needed him back.

Because of these qualities and all those other, more obvious ones, Sydney wasn't surprised he was he was already attached. But, come to think of it, she was more puzzled than ever as to why he had flirted with her in Slovakia. He didn't seem like the type of guy that would go behind his girlfriend's back, but what did she know? After all, she barely knew him…

Her train of thoughts was interrupted when she heard the phone ring. Lazily, she decided to let Francie pick it up. A few seconds later, her friend showed up in her room.

"Syd, this is Danny!" she said, covering the speaker with her hand, all excited.

Sydney had completely forgotten about him. What should she do? Francie would be really mad at her if she didn't go on at least one date with him. Plus… Agent Vaughn was able to juggle having both a professional and a personal life, so why wouldn't she? She made her decision: she would give Danny a chance.

"Hello?" she said, shooting a look at Francie who was sitting on the bed with no intention of missing this conversation.

"Hi, Sydney? This is Daniel Hecht."

"Hi Daniel. How are you?"

"Good. Uh… Francie told me that you might be interested in… well… going out sometime."

"I bet she also said I had no social life?" Sydney joked, wanting to put Danny at ease.

"I guess you don't need to be a super spy to guess that, huh?" he laughed.

He seemed to have a good sense of humour and Sydney liked it.

"Yeah… So, are you free next Saturday night?" she asked.

"As a matter of fact I am. And I was going to ask you if you liked hockey, because a friend of mine just gave me two tickets to the Kings' game."

"Well, I'm no hockey expert, but that sounds fun!"

"Great! So I'll pick you up at… six, Saturday night?"

"Okay. See you then!"

"Bye!"

Sydney hung up and gazed at Francie.

Her friend was beaming.