The Dream

Chapter 5: Chocolate and Wine

They had been running for what seemed like an eternity, when Vaughn grabbed her arm. Unable to utter a single word, he pointed behind them. The mansion was huge and the grounds had been well lit for the party, but there was no sign of it behind them.

Vaughn collapsed on the grass, chest heaving, and Sydney sat down next to him. For a few minutes they were both silent, only able to gasp for air. Sydney recovered before Vaughn did, but he was the first to speak.

"I don't think I have ever run that far in my entire life. How far do you think that was? Like ten miles?"

She shook her head, "Two, three maybe."

"Wow, I could have sworn we had just run a marathon."

Sydney laughed, a sound that made Vaughn's head spin even more than it already was.

"It was worth it," he said in a low voice.

There was an awkward silence. "Yeah, we got the plans," Sydney finally responded.

"No," Vaughn moved closer to her and she gazed deeply into his captivating eyes. "It was worth it to be with you."

With those words, Vaughn closed the distance between her mouth and his, with the sweetest and most passionate kiss…

"Sydney?"

…or at least that's the way Sydney wished it had ended. The fantasy was true up to a certain point, and probably could have finished that way. He had told her that it had been worth it and she had offered her weak response about the plans, but when he had moved toward her, she had turned away. He would have held her in his arms and kissed her until she could no longer contain her passion, but she had turned away…

"Syd, are you listening?"

…she had turned away and she didn't know why. She had ached to be near to him, to feel his smooth skin and the gentle touch of his lips, but just as he was about to offer, she refused. She could have spent the night in his arms, but instead she had turned away…

"Earth to Sydney," Will's voice finally drew her completely out of her fantasy and brought her back into her living room. She shook her head slightly and looked at her friend. He gave her a strange look. "I think you were just about to leave the galaxy, you were like a million miles away."

"Sorry."

"Okay, I'll start over from the beginning. I was just saying that…"

"Will," Sydney interrupted him and he looked up at her. "It's getting late and I'm kind of tired. Could we finish this some other time?"

Will sighed and got up from the couch, "Yeah, sure. I guess I'll just see you tomorrow or whatever."

"Thanks, Will," Sydney stayed seated and watched him walk to the door. "I'll call you."

"Sure." Without saying goodbye, Will went out the door. He seemed upset and normally Sydney wouldn't have made him leave like that, but right now she didn't really care.

She hadn't seen Vaughn since Spain. It had been nearly a week ago, but she still dreamed about what could have been. After she had turned away from him that night, she had stood up and fumbled in her purse for the vaccine plans; she had handed them to him, mumbled something about getting back to the hotel and left.

Sydney picked up her glass and reached for the TV remote, glad that Francie had to work late and she could have a few hours to be by herself and drown her sorrows in wine, chocolate, and old movies. She had wanted to talk to Francie about the situation with Vaughn and had almost used the infamous, "There's this guy at work" line, but decided against it. If she brought it up Francie would ask her a million questions, including why she couldn't meet the guy and why Sydney hadn't talked about him before. It was better just to leave things as they were.

About half an hour later, the wine and chocolate ice cream were already beginning to lift her spirits, and her thoughts became more hopeful. Sloane was sending her on mission, this time with Dixon, to a market in Cairo, Egypt, where Sydney was supposed to ID a weapons vendor that had been selling high-tech goods to K-Directorate. On this trip, she would get to play tourist, and of course Marshall had decked her out with a pair of stylish sunglasses that would not only protect her eyes from the harsh sun, but also doubled as a camera.

She was supposed to leave tomorrow afternoon, and even though there was no chance of Vaughn accompanying her on this mission, she would at least be able to see him before the mission, probably early tomorrow.

The meeting would no doubt be awkward. After all, she felt like a total idiot for rejecting Vaughn's advances, and he probably felt just as foolish for making them. She briefly considered walking into the warehouse and heading straight to Vaughn and kissing him until he begged for mercy, but quickly realized that would probably not be such a good idea.

Next she wondered if he would be angry, but Sydney only considered that for a few seconds and did not let it bother her too much. Most men weren't able to stay angry at her for too long, except maybe for that son of a bitch who broke her arm in Corsica, but men like him didn't count.

She decided that the best thing to do would be to walk into the warehouse as if nothing had happened, keep the topic of conversation focused on the countermission, and go back to playing the game that she had played all through their mission in Valencia, the rules of which included keeping her eyes away from his and her mind off of the fact that she wanted to close the ever-widening gap between them and be held tightly in his arms.

Sydney was now in a much better mood and was about to go to bed, when she remembered how she had left things with Will earlier. It wasn't his fault that her life was screwed up and she hadn't meant to be so short with him. He could get on her nerves, but he meant well and was good friend. A quick glance at the clock told her that although it was late, it was still early enough to call Will, apologize, and maybe even listen to whatever he had been rambling about earlier.

Sydney's hand was only inches away from the phone, when it suddenly rang, causing her to nearly jump out of her skin. She quickly regained her composure and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" No one answered, so she tried again, "Hello?"

She was about to hang up, silently cursing immature prank-callers, when a low voice came over the line, "Joey's Pizza?"