A/N: Hi, everyone!I hope you like this chapter, even though it's not about big revelations. One of the (many, many) things I enjoyed about Alias was the combination of earth-shattering incredible events and the prosaic things of day-to-day routine. I thought it was amazing to see that in the crazy heroic world Sydney and Vaughn lived in what actually saved them (or at least kept them from losing their minds) time after time were the "little" things in life, those we all take for granted. Put in their perspective, these things regained their enormous value.

This part of the story is about that: how even Sydney and Vaughn, living what was supposed to be a "fake" marriage, can have some normalcy in their lives, and how important this normalcy is for them.

Thank you very much for your reviews! I love reading each one of them!

Chapter twenty four

Getting home from the office every evening I let my thoughts drift to Vaughn and to our marriage. It's a forty minutes drive and I use the time well.

I remember our first days in our beautiful home. There was some awkwardness then, it was undeniable. He clearly didn't know how to be married to Julia Thorne and his demeanor fluctuated from self-protective distancing to overdone displays of affection that I knew not to be spontaneous. I was confused myself and kept giving him crossed signs, being cold at times and then overly passionate just to be cold again, trying to remedy any out-of-character behavior. The beginning of a marriage is a delicate time for any couple – it's a period of transition and adjustment – but it was certainly more complicate to us. We had to adjust to each other and to the characters we were playing, and then we had to make them adjust to each other. We were finding out how it was to be married as Sydney and Vaughn and as Julia and Christopher at the same time. Still, the memory of those days brings a smile to my face, because from the comfortable spot where we are now it's fun to look back and remember our embarrassment from those days. I would pray for Weiss to be the most inappropriate best friend ever and visit Vaughn and me in our first week as husband and wife (Vaughn actually sighed in relief when he actually showed up for dinner one evening) and would spend hours in the kitchen with Hannah with the excuse of preparing something special for my husband.

We wore down each other defenses little by little, though, and soon we were settled into our life together. I remember one morning we were having breakfast in the rose garden in utter silence and avoiding each other's gaze at all costs. We had had a very passionate night but when morning came it was as if we were two strangers not knowing what to do around each other. But then, as I took a sip of my orange juice, I heard Vaughn laughing softly and looked up at him.

"This is ridiculous." He said.

"I know." I was laughing too.

"We can have a whole night of amazing sex together but can't talk over breakfast?"

He made it sound preposterous, though I knew he understood perfectly well what was going on – with him, at least: in the bedroom, we were too entangled in the moment and with each other to worry about playing our characters well – our characters of husband and wife as well as of Christopher and Julia.

"Oh, I'm glad you found last night to be amazing…" I said teasing him with a hint of seduction in my voice.

"Didn't you?" he asked, though there was no doubt in his tone.

"You know I did." I answered. We smiled and were silent again while I poured him some coffee.

"It works, Julia. We work." He said softly, in a very reassuring way. "We are not trying something here. We've already succeeded." He took my hand and draw small circles on its back with his thumb. I gave him a dimpled smile.

Even in the situation we were trapped him, I trusted him; I believed what he said. So we both stopped trying so hard and just started living. In the end, it turned out that he was right. We were good together; it was easy being around each other. He made me feel at home and I guess to some level I made him feel the same way. So we started settling down. We would work well together as always and have great talks over meals. He would read to me in the library late nights and after the first time he asked me to help him pick a tie one morning we made a ritual out of it.

But the fact that we were comfortable around each other didn't mean that our feelings were less intense. One light touch from Vaughn still makes my skin burn and his kisses shake me out of my own private and lonely world. And about this I have no doubt: I know that I affect him the same way. Our conscious selves might have to lie and pretend; our bodies don't. On this I can rely.

…………………………………………….

I remember our first fight – over curtains, of all things.

I picked the curtains for the window panes in the piano room when Vaughn went to LA for a weekend. I felt frustrated and lonely and I didn't want to think about him and Lauren, so I got Hannah and we went to this amazing store in Trastevere that sells the most beautiful fabrics I've ever seen. After a long debate I chose a sandy-colored fabric with a special texture imitating autumn leaves. I was sure Vaughn would approve it.

When the curtains were delivered ten days later, though, he seemed really upset. He had been working in the study and I called him to see them when they were already hanging beautifully. He didn't say a word.

"Don't you like them?" I asked concerned.

"They're hideous." He said boldly.

I was taken aback with that reaction. It was nothing like Vaughn to be so short and unkind.

"What?" I asked in a small voice.

"They are the most hideous things I've ever seen."

Hannah, who had been admiring the curtains from the corner of the room headed quietly back to the kitchen.

"I can't believe you think this way. I was so sure that you would like them…" I tried.

"Oh, you know what the problem is? The problem is that you think you know me very well. Let me tell you: you don't! You don't know me at all!" he snapped and right then I knew that that argument wasn't about the curtains.

It had hit me a couple weeks before: we had been married for almost six months and had not once had a serious argument, not a single fight. To me, realizing that was a joy; to him, though, it must have been terrifying to know that we got along so well; that we could be so happy together. He must have been freaking out and the new curtains became victims to his plan of proving to himself and to me that we weren't a "perfect couple". (As if even the most perfect couples didn't fight, but anyway.) I understood what was going on with him, but still I couldn't avoid the huge fight we had, probably because I was angry that he felt the need to fight with me for nothing; that he couldn't accept that – yes, we were great together.

"You know, Christopher, maybe I don't want to know you." I told him sharply.

"Good, because you never will." he retorted. I could feel a tear trying to escape my eye, but I fought it back.

"It's fine with me. What I won't have is you acting like a jerk around me because of such a thing as curtains." I had regained some control and my voice was steady.

"I hate it when you act like the queen of good manners." his jaw was clenched and I knew he was really furious. It only added to my anger.

"Don't use sarcasm against me. You know better than that." I said looking him in the eye.

"Don't threaten me, Julia. You know better than that."

He turned his back on me and left. I heard the door to the study slam violently and flinched slightly on my spot. Hannah found me completely still with my arms around my body. She enveloped me in a motherly hug, telling me that everything would be all right.

Vaughn didn't come out of the study for hours. Hannah called him to dinner but it was no use. I was sitting at the dinning table all by myself when the doorbell rang. It was Weiss. I heard Hannah telling him that Vaughn and I had had an argument and that it wasn't a good time. He was about to leave when I came to the foyer and asked him to stay and keep me company over dinner. I tried to do some small talk but it was too hard. Finally Weiss couldn't help it anymore.

"Julia, I'm sorry to pry, but what happened?" he asked carefully.

"He didn't like the new curtains." I said.

"You fought over curtains?!" he gapped at me.

"Ridiculous, huh?" I was staring at my plate.

"I'll talk to him." He said rising from his seat.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Fred." I sounded helpless.

"Julia, he's being a jerk. I'll straighten him up." That was… unexpected. Was Weiss on my side? But before he could do or say anything else Vaughn entered the dinning room. He walked past Weiss as if he wasn't there and knelt down beside my chair taking my hands in his.

"I'm sorry." he said "Fred is right. I'm acting like a jerk."

"Not now, you aren't… I'm sorry too." We both stood up and hugged each other. "We can get rid of those curtains and get other ones." I suggested.

"Nah, I'll get used to them." he smiled playing with a strand of my hair.

"Okay then."

"Ah… well done, kids! I'm proud of you! Now we can have some dessert." Weiss said happily.

Vaughn and I exchanged an amused glance. Soon things went back to normal. Sometimes he will make a comment about the infamous curtains; by now I'm convinced that it is all a pretense. And I actually came to enjoy our fake little arguments. They add to the "normalcy" of our life as a couple.

…………………………………………………

I remember the time he showed me how to take care of the roses. It was a sunny spring day and we were having breakfast in the garden as we usually do. He caught me staring at the roses.

"You truly like them, don't you?" he asked softly.

"Yeah. I do. I love this place." I turned my attention from the flowers and focused on him. He was smiling.

"My parents loved roses. We had a rose garden in Fleury. My father took care of it and he taught me all about roses." He was lost in his memories for a moment.

"Will you teach me? I'd like to help you taking care of them." He was out of his reverie and staring at me with a questioning expression.

"Really? Why?"

"Because I like them." But I knew it was more than that. "Because they bring me joy. Because they keep me company." I was not sure of what I was saying, just thinking out loud; trying to figure out a felling I didn't understand myself.

"Are you lonely?" he asked.

"What?"

"You said the roses keep you company. Are you lonely?"

"No." It was a lie. "Sometimes… in some ways." I was desperately trying not to hurt him, although I didn't know why I felt that my admitting that I was lonely would hurt him.

"I'll show you how to take care of them." he decided and I wondered whether he understood me more than I thought he could.

We spent hours in the garden that day. We were transferring some seedlings to a new flower bed; I handled them carefully as if holding life itself on my hands; I enjoyed having dirt on them – dealing with it was healthy and restoring. I was used to have blood on my hands; they finally seemed clean after a long time. Vaughn said I had my way with the roses; I felt proud. Since then I've helped him in the garden and it truly became our garden. We carefully watch every rosebush that grows in there; we make bets about the color of the flowers about to bloom from the new buds; we pick the roses that fall to the ground after their short life. I let their petals dry, make potpourris with them and put those everywhere so the entire house smells of roses.

I know that one day, when I don't have any of this anymore – not Vaughn, not our garden, not our villa, not our life together – I'll still fell the scent of the roses and it will bring me some solace. It will keep me some company.