Chapter 52: Patio Pow-Wow
"Don't let what you can't do interfere with what you can do." – Anon.
"In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action." – Aristotle
Sydney woke the next morning feeling safe and comfortable in Vaughn's arm. She looked up at him, and took her daily morning moment to watch him sleep. He seemed calm and serene, and she felt wonderful that he had made it through another night without a nightmare.
She didn't know if Francie and Will had made it home last night, but she noticed that she was covered with a blanket and became rather frantic for a moment wondering if it was one of her friends that had covered them up or if Vaughn had done it. She could hear Donovan's snoring down the hall as well, so someone must have let him in.
When she next looked up at Vaughn, he was smiling down at her.
"Hey," he said sleepily.
"Hi," she said and then added, "You covered us, right?"
He smiled, "Yeah, it was me…not a roomie."
"Good," she said relived, "That would be embarrassing."
He smiled his understanding.
"So…you want breakfast?"
"Mmm…breakfast like the other day? Cause I'm already awake now…"
"No silly, I mean real breakfast…we'll have to save that for another day."
"Ok…"
She ran off to the bedroom to grab some clothes and came back to help Vaughn dress. She was just finishing when Francie came out of her bedroom.
"Hey guys," she said quietly.
"Hey," they both echoed, before Sydney added, "Where's Will?"
Francie made a jerking motion towards her room, "He's still asleep…you guys want breakfast?"
Sydney looked down at Vaughn, "Yeah, we were just about to make something, but you know…if you're offering to make another wonderful breakfast, we're more than willing to eat it."
Vaughn poked his head up slightly, "Ditto!" he said.
Francie smiled and set to work.
Sydney looked down at Vaughn, "You wanna do your first exercises before or after breakfast?"
"Let's get them over with now…"
"Ok," Sydney said moving to sit on his legs.
They did the crunches first and Sydney was pleased to see that he got through five of them without too much pain. Once they were finished with the first set, she moved down to his ankle and they did the rotations of that as well. Then came the standing. Sydney noted that Vaughn seemed more apprehensive about the standing, probably since it didn't go so well the first time. She was as gentle as possible, and tried to be reassuring.
"Ok Vaughn, let's sit you up."
He complied, letting her sit on his legs again and getting him into a sitting position. Then she moved his legs off the couch, stood up and grabbed onto his hand and his sling, instructing him to push off with his feet. He did so with more success than yesterday, but it was a similar scenario.
"You ok?" she asked.
"Still dizzy," he said wavering.
She moved to hold him up, and he took a similar stance to that of the previous day. She wound up holding him up though for a longer time, and he seemed ok as long as he could lean on her.
She was just getting him down to the couch again when Francie walked in with three plates of omelets.
She looked at the couple strangely, "What were you doing, if I may ask?"
Vaughn smiled, "It's this new form of sex…you do it standing, and you don't need any kind of p–"
"VAUGHN!" Sydney yelled. "My God! We were doing his exercises, he has this whole list he has to do…crunches six times, standing three times, and ankle as well…it supposed to help him progress…"
"Oh, that's good."
"Oh it is…" Vaughn said with a gleam in his eye.
Sydney just shook her head and handed Vaughn his plate. He smiled at her when she handed him the fork after that, "Let me know…" she said.
"I will…" he answered. She got up and brought Vaughn's pills back, handing him what he needed to take.
"You know, for an invalid and two girls, you guys sure are noisy!" Will said as he lumbered out of the bedroom, obviously still tired.
Francie smiled as they kissed, "You want breakfast?" she asked sweetly.
"Nah, I'll just eat some of yours," he said moving towards her plate.
"NO!" she said, snatching it away. "You'll eat it all…there's another one in the oven…I kept it warm."
"Aw, that was nice," Will said, kissing her once again and bounding off for his food.
He came back seconds later, greedily eating the omelet; half of it was already gone.
Francie looked at her plate and then at Will's, "Hungry?" she asked with a smirk.
Will smiled with his mouth obviously full, "Mmph, a wuf breal nugee."
All the other occupants of the room looked at him questioningly.
"I said, I was really hungry," he clarified.
"What are you guys gonna do today?" Sydney asked the other couple.
Francie answered, "Mmm…don't know…we didn't have any plans really, how about you guys?"
Vaughn smiled as Sydney looked at him, "I don't know either…we have to do exercises, that's about the only thing on the agenda for today."
Will and Francie looked at each other again before Will said, "You guys wanna do something here at home? We could to the movie thing again…or…something else."
Vaughn looked deep in thought.
Sydney finally asked, "Vaughn? Honey?"
He looked at her, "Can we go outside?"
Sydney looked back surprised, "Outside!"
Vaughn sheepishly answered, "Yeah…outside."
Sydney looked to Will and Francie and then back to Vaughn, "Uh…sure…um…what do you want to do outside?"
"I don't know, can't we just sit outside or something? We don't have to play soccer, can't we just be outside? I don't know, play cards, find shapes in the clouds, whatever, I just want to go outside…get some fresh air, get out of the house. Can we go outside?" he finished, looking amazingly nine years old again.
Sydney looked down at him again after the speech, "Sure honey, we can go outside. Let's get a chair that'll be comfortable. Will can you get that reclining chair out of the garage and bring it out to the patio?"
Will nodded, "Sure!" and ran off to get the chair. After a minute he came back in looking very excited. "Hey! We could grill! You guys wanna grill out tonight?"
Vaughn was the first to answer; "Yeah!" and Donovan let out a resounding bark to add his opinion to the mix.
Sydney looked concernedly at Vaughn and then looked to Francie whose face mirrored the worry on Sydney's.
"Um, grilling? Vaughn, I'm not sure that all the smoke would be a good idea…you know…lung problems."
"Aw Sydney, come on…we can just move me away from the grill. It'll be fine…come on…please?"
She smiled when she saw his face, all aglow with the nine-year-old wonder. "Ok…we can grill…but we have to be careful."
Will mouthed 'yes!' to Vaughn and ran off again to find the chair. He moved it out unto the patio and then the four finished their breakfasts. Sydney and Francie cleaned up the dishes and went out to the patio and cleaned up the area where they'd all be sitting, while Will got a few more chairs and moved the table around. Once they were finished they came back in the house to move Vaughn.
Sydney unhooked the oxygen and Francie carried it outside and Will and Sydney helped Vaughn out onto the patio. Sydney was impressed that Vaughn seemed a little more comfortable walking with help. With both Will and herself supporting him, and the added benefit of a healing ankle, he was able to walk quite sufficiently. They eased him into the reclining lawn chair and Sydney hooked up the oxygen again.
"Ok?" she asked.
He smiled widely, "Better…" he replied.
She returned the smile, "You need anything else? Blanket, pillow?"
"No, I'm good," he said settling into the chair as Donovan leaped up to sit next to Vaughn.
Will called from in the house, "Sydney?"
"Yeah?"
"You wanna come in here and help me?"
"Sure, I'll be right back Vaughn, you be ok?"
"Yeah," he said.
"I'll keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't run off anywhere," Francie said.
"Good…" Sydney kissed Vaughn and went off into the house searching for Will.
"So…" Francie said.
"So…" Vaughn echoed.
"I've been meaning to ask you…how did this all happen to you?"
Vaughn went pale at the question, not knowing how to answer her, "Uh…" he thought desperately for a moment, "I…was on a business trip…for the bank…and…got…kidnapped, yeah, kidnapped by these ransom for hire people…yeah…they held me for…a while…"
"Hmm," Francie said obviously not convinced, "And they did all of this to you?"
"Yeah," Vaughn replied simply, scratching at Donovan's ears.
"Wouldn't that decrease their chances of getting their ransom if they didn't keep you healthy?"
Shit, Vaughn thought… "Well, as long as your alive, they've done their job, haven't they? They never promise to keep you healthy. Besides, the bank wouldn't pay the ransom."
"Why not?"
"They asked for too much, and plus the bank doesn't like to be blackmailed."
"So how did you finally get away?"
Shit, Vaughn thought again, he couldn't tell her that Sydney had found him…and he certainly couldn't tell her that Sydney's mother had tipped them off…Francie didn't even know anything about the CIA connections… "They made a huge mistake, trusted someone in their organization that they shouldn't have…they gave me up…gave away my location, and the authorities were able to get to me in enough time to get me out of there before the kidnappers had a chance to stop them."
"Hmm…" Francie said again, "Why would they want you? I mean no offense, but you just work at a bank…"
"A bank that's internationally renowned, that does business all over the globe."
"But still, why you?"
"I was available…maybe they thought I knew more than I did."
"Yeah, maybe…" Francie still didn't look convinced. "They did a lot of shit to you, huh?"
"Yeah," Vaughn answered, eyes averting downward. This was not a topic he really wished to discuss with Francie.
"Like what? If you don't mind me asking."
He smiled slightly, knowing that would be her next question, "Uh…lots of stuff…"
Francie waited, but Vaughn didn't offer anything else. She noticed that he seemed to drift off slightly, he didn't return her gaze anymore, and he seemed to retreat further into the chair.
"Michael?" she asked.
"Yeah…"
"Are you going to elaborate?"
"Do I have to?" he asked quietly.
Francie softened immediately when she realized that she might be pushing him too far. "Look Michael, I don't mean to pry or anything, I guess it's just that I don't know what happened to you…I know that you have nightmares, that you were injured, but I don't know why. The story is…well…it's kind of outlandish…I don't understand it at all, but I'd like to understand what happened to you so I know how I should act around you. And I must say, that I'm concerned about Sydney. She loves you, that's obvious, but I want to be sure that she's ok too…you know…that's she not in over her head here…"
Vaughn smiled and looked at Francie, "I know…I worry about that too…you don't have to walk on eggshells around me or anything like that…I'm not damaged or anything…" he stopped a minute and looked away, "it's really hard to talk about what happened to me, especially with someone that I don't really know…not that I don't know you or anything, but I mean, we weren't like bosom buddies or anything before this happened to me, and I'm sure it's not ideal for you either, having this strange guy claiming to be Sydney's boyfriend become a resident in your house all of a sudden…I love Sydney, and I never want to hurt her. If I thought that something that I was doing or not doing was hurting her, I'd leave…she's the most important thing…I…I don't know what I would do without her."
Francie smiled and moved over to sit on Vaughn's lawn chair, "Look, I didn't mean to make it seem as though you're not welcome here or anything…you're not like putting us out or anything, you practically lived here before anyway, ok? I just had to be sure…ok? I love Sydney too…"
Vaughn looked up at Francie, "Who doesn't?" he said with a smile.
"That's right…"
"What do you want to know?"
"You don't have to tell me…that's ok…I understand…"
"Francie, if you really wanna know, I'll tell you…"
She looked down at him for a minute; seemingly deciding how far to push this, "Well…how about just a little bit…just so I can have an idea…you decide what you want to tell me though…"
Vaughn thought a moment, "Basically, they tortured me for almost 20 days…although I didn't know that at the time, Sydney told me that later. For all intensive purposes, it could have been 3 or 90 days for me…I had no concept anymore of time."
Francie looked down at Vaughn concerned, "Tortured?" she asked in an unbelieving tone.
"Yes."
"Can I ask what kind?"
"Just about anything you can come up with, I bet they did it."
"Wow…that must have been horrible, it's no wonder you have nightmares Michael."
Vaughn smiled and then sighed, "You want more, or is that enough?"
Francie smiled back at Vaughn, "No…I think that's enough…thank you…"
"For what?"
"Telling me…trusting me…and loving Sydney."
"Same here…"
"Good," she leaned down and kissed Vaughn on the forehead, then got up and went into the house just as Sydney was coming out. Francie smiled at Sydney and Sydney turned around to watch her go back into the house before making her way back over to Vaughn.
"That was weird," she said as she pulled a chair closer to Vaughn.
"What?" he asked.
"Francie just gave me this really weird smile as she walked in the house…" she looked down at Vaughn, "kinda…the same one you have…what's going on? Did I miss something?"
Vaughn looked up at her, and she cringed inwardly, seeing the familiar look of torture remembrance on his face.
"Vaughn, did Francie say something to you?"
"No, Syd…it's ok…we just talked…but if she asks, I was kidnapped and held for ransom by people who thought I could tell them stuff about the bank that both of us don't work at…"
Sydney looked at him confused and angry.
"Don't be mad, I had to come up with something, I couldn't tell her the truth."
"She asked you what happened?"
"Yeah…"
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm ok…she was just curious, and worried…about you."
"About me? Why?"
"Same reason I worry about you…"
"And what reason is that?"
"That you're in over your head here, and you love me too much to tell me."
"Vaughn, we've been over this before…I can't believe she said that to you…I'm gonna talk to her." Sydney made a move to get up, but Vaughn grabbed her arm.
"No, Sydney…just relax…she was only concerned about you…she had every right to ask…don't be angry with her. I'm fine…it needed to be addressed."
Sydney sat down on the edge of the chair and smoothed Vaughn's hair back, "You are so wonderful, do you know that?"
"Mmm…no, I think you're the one who's wonderful…and you have wonderful friends."
"Yep, we're one big wonderful household here." Sydney said laughing with Vaughn as she bent down to claim his wonderfulness as hers.
