The Dream

Chapter 4: Valencia, Part III

A few seconds elapsed, and Sydney held her breath. Simultaneously, both keypads emitted three high pitched beeps; a hissing noise followed. A panel on the far wall slid open. Sydney removed the vaccine plans from the safe and stuffed them into her purse. Vaughn closed the panel and they both hung the paintings back on the wall.

"Let's get out of here," Vaughn murmured.

Sydney nodded and they both cautiously made their way out of the office and down the hall. They were about halfway down the hallway when Sydney motioned for Vaughn to stop; she bent down and looked at the floor. "Dammit."

"What is it?"

Sydney motioned to the bloodstain on the floor. "The guards are gone."

Just as she had spoken those words, they heard the sounds of footsteps and shouting from the stairwell. There were at least ten men approaching them, and from the few Spanish words Vaughn could recognize above the shouting, they did not sound happy.

"Shit," he whispered under his breath. Before he even had a chance to think, Sydney grabbed his arm and they ran into a room at the end of the hall.

The room Sydney had randomly chosen was obviously an office of some sort. An unimportant office because thankfully the door hadn't been locked. The shouting and stomping were drawing nearer, and this time it was Vaughn's turn to act quickly. He grabbed Sydney's arm and pulled her under one of the computer desks that were scattered throughout the room.

Vaughn quickly realized that when he had pulled Sydney underneath the desk, he had not ended up crouching down with her next to him, as he had planned. That would have been bad enough, but the way they had somehow positioned themselves was by far worse.

He had managed to end up lying on his back with his head propped up against one side of the desk. That would have been okay if he had been the only one underneath the desk, but somehow Sydney had ended up on her stomach on top of him, holding her upper body up with her arms. She appeared to be listening intently to the noise in the hallway and focusing solely on the gravity of the situation, but Vaughn found himself noticing how their legs were entangled and they were hopelessly close together in the cramped space underneath the desk.

She was not just close to him. The word close could imply that they were standing right next to each other or sitting near each other, situations that he had been in with her before. Just that night he had held her in his arms and danced with her. He could take those situations. This one, however, he was having a hard time with. Not only was he very, very close to Sydney Bristow, but she was lying right on top of him in one of the most suggestive positions imaginable.

Vaughn thoughts were racing, "Why in God's name do I have to be lying here with Sydney Bristow? Here, under a desk, in a mansion in Spain, with a bunch of angry security guards after us. Why couldn't the situation be different? Why couldn't we be somewhere else?…In a bed, on the couch, the kitchen table…hell, I'd settle for on top of the desk as long as…Oh, shit! What am I thinking?!" Vaughn tried to focus on something else, glad that he had just been running and could use that as an excuse for his rapid pulse and breathing.

He tried to focus on the seriousness of the situation; after all they could both be dead in a matter of seconds if one of those damn guards decided to thoroughly search the room. Thinking of that, however, only made him realize that this might be his last and only chance to feel Sydney this close to him, perhaps even feel her lips against his own. So, obviously focusing on the mission was not the way to keep Vaughn's mind off of Sydney. He spent the agonizingly long seconds trying to remember every dirty word in every language he had ever known.

During this time, Sydney was not as engaged in the mission as Vaughn thought she was. It was true that part of her mind was focused on noise of the guards outside the door (it was a small part, but it counted nonetheless), but most of her mind was focused on Vaughn. "Dammit, dammit, dammit," she thought to herself. "Why does Vaughn still have to have his shirt partially unbuttoned? And why does it have to be that on this particular mission, when I happen to be with Vaughn and not Dixon, I have to be caught underneath a desk, on top of my partner?" She could have handled this easily had it been Dixon. He was good friend, like a brother; Vaughn, although a good friend, she did not think of as a brother. That would definitely be wrong; not that it was right to think of her handler the way she did, and the way she was and shouldn't be at that very second.

She decided the safest thing to do at that moment was not to look at him and not to think about him. The latter was an almost impossible feat, but she could at least try. For this reason, her attention appeared to be focused on the situation outside the room, not the one underneath the desk.

Suddenly, the door to the room slammed open. Sydney became tense and Vaughn put a hand on her arm. They couldn't see the man, but they could hear his heavy footsteps. Barely breathing, they heard him walk slowly around the dark room, moving objects around and grumbling to himself in Spanish. He stood right in front of the desk they were under and Sydney could see the toes of his shoes in the few inches of space between the metal of the front of the desk and the floor. She began to formulate a plan in case they were discovered. Vaughn, meanwhile, had named all the English curses he knew and had moved on to French and Spanish.

Just as quickly as they had come, the footsteps retreated, and the guard slammed the door shut. Sydney relaxed; Vaughn let out a sigh of relief. His hand was still resting on her arm, but he quickly removed it once he was able to think again, and before that hand wandered to other unexplored and desirable areas.

Sydney listened carefully for a few minutes. When she no longer heard any noise from the hallway, she finally turned to face Vaughn, her eyes sparkling. She was so relieved that they had not been caught that she almost hugged him, but quickly decided against it. If she put her arms around him and brought her face close to his, she would never be able to pull away.

Vaughn was beginning to consider that under the desk wouldn't be so bad now that the guards were gone. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he decided he'd better speak before he did something he would no doubt enjoy now, but would later regret. "They're gone," he whispered, stating the obvious.

"I know," Sydney murmured, still watching his eyes like she was in a trance. Finally, she turned away and said, "We'd better go before they come back."

Vaughn nodded, and Sydney slowly got up, reluctant to move away from him.

They both stood silently in the shadows until Vaughn whispered, "I don't think we should go out the front door."

"No kidding."

"So, what's the plan?"

"Why do I have to come up with the plan?"

"Because you're the smart one."

Sydney smiled sweetly, "Well, if that's the reason, I guess I don't mind thinking up the plan." She moved towards the window and looked down at the ground. They were at the back of the mansion. "It's not that far of a drop from here."

"You want to jump out of a window?" Vaughn asked, praying she'd say no.

"Well, I've done worse, but I guess…" she moved toward one of the computers. "How long do you think this cord is?"

"Fifteen, maybe twenty feet…"

"Good. Here, help me move this." She braced herself against a desk and Vaughn helped her move it towards the window.

"Why the hell do you think they need a twenty-foot cord to plug in a computer that's right next to the wall?" he asked as they move the desk.

"I don't know," she replied, "But I wouldn't complain if I were you; it's saving you from having to jump out the window." She unplugged the computer and secured the cord to one of the legs of the desk. "Do you want to go first?"

"Not really," Vaughn replied. "You go and I'll follow you."

Sydney opened the window and threw the cord out; it almost reached the ground. She quickly climbed out the window. "See you at the bottom."

Vaughn watched her descend; she climbed down quickly and easily. He knew that this was probably nothing to her but his heart still skipped a beat at the thought of her falling. He waited until she safely reached the ground and waved up to him until he finally took a deep breath and climbed out of the window.

Sydney watched him climb down, knowing that he probably hadn't done anything like this in a really long time, if he ever had at all. She didn't take her eyes off him until he had both of his feet on the ground.

When Vaughn reached the ground, he studied Sydney for a moment, amazed to find that even after knocking out three security guards, retrieving secret vaccine plans, hiding under a desk, and climbing out of a window, she still looked perfect. Her hair was only slightly tousled and her dress looked as if she had just put it on. She was slightly flushed and irresistibly gorgeous; Vaughn had to look away.

"Let's go," Sydney whispered, and they ran as fast as they could, not stopping until Vaughn, breathless and in pain, happened to look back and notice that the mansion was no longer in sight.