This chapter is long. Wasn't anything I could do about that. And you must know that this is kinda out of order, but it fit here the best. So picture where Vaughn is time wise, and back it up a day or so. So the past two chapters took place on Monday, this is on Saturday night starting off with Vaughn dropping Alexandra off. I think you can follow that.
Thanx to my reviewers!!!!!
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Alexandra didn't know how to react to the news that her father was going to drop her off at her aunt's house. She thought she was lucky. Her dad worked at a high school, meaning he didn't have to travel for work. So why was she suddenly thrust into her Aunt Francie's house, she wondered. She even had to share a room with Calvin for a couple of nights. She didn't even know how long her dad was going to be gone. She sighed as she fell back onto the couch. She wanted to be at home, not at Aunt Francie's house. Calvin had been watching her and following her since she had arrived. He gave her a smile, and then did an over dramatic sigh, and jumped onto the couch. "Don't jump Calvin." France scolded. Calvin crinkled up his nose, and began to fidget. "Hey Alexandra, could you set the table for me?"
"Sure." Francie handed Alexandra a pile of plates. It felt larger than it had to be. "Aunt Francie, how come there is eight plates, there is only four of us."
"Will and crew are coming over for dinner. They had been planning on coming over for a while now. You were just an added bonus."
Alexandra's sprits immediately rose. She liked her Uncle Will, and his wife Mia was pretty cool too. And his daughters were the coolest. Sure, they weren't her age, but they were twins. Mallory and Sydney were their names. They were only five. To a nine year old, there is something about twins that make everything special. She would never tell Leigh (Sydney's middle name, everyone called her that) or Ally (Malory's nickname) this, but sometimes with her friends, they would play twins. Leigh and Ally thought being twins was stupid. But not Alexandra. She often wished she was a twin. That way she could have someone to talk to at home besides her dad. But that is not what she really wanted. Alexandra really wanted a little sister. Each year, for Christmas, when her daddy wasn't looking, Alexandra would wish to Santa for her daddy to fall in love again, and she would get a step mom, and a little sister. Even though she didn't believe in Santa anymore, Alexandra would still write the letter and mail it. Each year Santa never delivered.
There was an odd sort of connection between Uncle Will and her. Alexandra didn't know why, but she felt that it had something to do with the fact that he had named on of his daughters after her mother. She also knew for a fact that he once loved her mother, but he got over her. Her daddy never liked Will all that much. Probably because he was considered the competition once. But Alexandra always liked him.
Alexandra had fun at dinner. Calvin knew that when Leigh and Ally were around, he wasn't going to like the games the three would play, so he would go off by himself and play, and stopped bothering Alexandra. Will, Mia, Ally, and Leigh left at eight, leaving Alexandra sour, at no longer having Calvin by himself.
"Bed time mister!" Joe said, scooping his son into his arms.
"Ahhhh noooo!" Calvin protested.
Their playful screams were still heard down the hall.
"You may want to head to be now too." Francie said, putting a hand on Alexandra's shoulder.
"Why? It's Saturday? My daddy lets me stay up until nine on Saturdays."
"I know, but in this family, we go to church Sunday morning."
"I never go to church."
"But tomorrow you will. We can't leave you here by yourself."
"I don't have a dress."
"I happen to have one I was planning to give you for your birthday, but you can have it now."
"Ok."
"Good, now go to bed you rascal you." Alexandra ran down the hall, and got changed into her pajamas. She was about ready to climb into her sleeping bag, when Francie came rapping at the door.
"Alexandra, your dad is on the phone and he wants to talk to you." She said.
Alexandra went running out of the door, and down the hall where she knew the phone was. "Hi Daddy!" She exclaimed.
"Hey Angel!"
"Where are you?"
"I can't tell you."
"How about when? Are you coming home tomorrow?"
"Nope. Sorry. We just got here. And it is really late, so we won't be able to start until tomorrow, and then at least two days here, and then fly home."
"So three more days?"
"Three more days here, which means its more like three and a half days."
"Aww…"
"Sorry."
"But listen. Are you one the cordless phone in the hallway?"
"Yeah?"
"Go to your sleeping bag."
"You don't have to Dad."
"But I want to. Now go on."
"Ok." Alexandra ran to her sleeping bag and jumped in. "I'm in."
Very quietly Vaughn began to sing to his daughter, the very same lullaby as he had since the day she was born.
"Night Alexandra." He said once he was finished.
"Night Daddy. I love you."
"I love you too." Alexandra handed the phone to Francie who started to talk to Vaughn. Alexandra woke up the next morning, and she took a few seconds to realize her surroundings. There was a beautiful dress sitting on Calvin's chair waiting for her. Alexandra squealed with delight, as she picked it up. It was perfect for church. She got dressed in her brand new birthday dress, and went running out to breakfast. "Thank you so much Aunt Francie!" She said, throwing her arms around Francie.
"You're welcome. Now hurry up and eat your cereal, I want to leave soon."
"Ok." She gobbled up her food fast, as Joe struggled to get Calvin in his little baby suit. Alexandra found the service to be dull, but she only yawned twice. Unlike Joe, who practically fell asleep. Francie took Alexandra's hand after the service and led Alexandra to the Sunday School class rooms. Alexandra quietly stood in the back waiting for the rest of the kids to come in. The teacher was nice, but a usually loud Alexandra was quiet and reserved as they worked on the craft for the day. They were making Christmas ornament angels. There wasn't enough time to finish them, so they were going to finish them the next week.
"I'm not going to be here next week." Alexandra quietly said.
The teacher understood. She went into the cupboard and pulled out the rest of the materials. "Here is all of the other things you're going to need to finish this. Remember how I asked everyone to bring a picture of someone they consider an angel in their lives. So you can do the same."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. Do you know who you want to use?"
"Yes." With that, Alexandra went running out to leave with Francie and Joe.
"What do you have there?" Joe asked.
"We were making angels, and I didn't get to finish mine. She let me take home the stuff so that I could finish it at home."
"That is very nice."
"Aunt Francie, do you have any pictures of my mom?" Alexandra asked, as they walked through the front door of the house. "Ones that I might be able to cut up?"
"Sure, somewhere. Why?"
"You know how we made angels?" Francie nodded, "Well, we're supposed to put a picture of someone who is an angel to us, and my mom is an angel, since she's in heaven."
Francie froze. He never told her. She could not believe that Vaughn had never told Alexandra the truth. True, it wasn't a pretty truth, but that was where he was now. Bringing home a mother she thinks is dead. "Who told you that?" Francie asked, carefully choosing her words.
"I kinda figured it out on my own. You know, she hasn't been around since I was two."
"Ok." Francie went into her bedroom, and pulled out a hat box of photos. "Here, you go, you can flip through these if you'd like."
"Thanks." Alex propped herself on her knees on the chair and took out a small handful of photos, to begin looking through. Francie watched as this girl picked through photos of her, and Alexandra's mother. She realized that it had been too long since she as well had looked through those photos. There were things to do, but sometimes, bonding with your best friend's daughter of old pictures takes prescience. Alexandra looked up at the older woman's presence at the table. Alex had already put aside a small pile of pictures that she liked. "Those are the ones I might use." Francie picked them up and looked at them. Most of them were just close ups of Sydney that really captured her true spirit. Alexandra picked up a new photo from the box, and gave a laugh. "Tell me about this one Aunt Francie." She begged.
Francie took one look at the photo and laughed as the happy memory came back to her. There was her, Sydney, Will, Danny, and Charlie, and Will's girlfriend of the week. Francie could never remember their names. The memory came easy to her. It was from one of the good old days. Before Danny died, before Charlie was discovered cheating, before anyone except Sydney knew about SD-6 and the CIA. They were covered in mud, standing out in the rain, smiles larger than the Grand Canyon spread across their faces. Danny was looking at Sydney with so much love, that when she saw this picture, she couldn't believe that Sydney believed that Vaughn loved her more than Danny ever did. "This picture here was taken after we went to the park on Easter. It was something we did every Easter. We would go to the park and play a game of soccer. Only it started to rain. No one wanted to quit because of a little rain, so we played. At the end we were so covered in mud. We just had to have a picture of this, so some poor person walking their dog took this from this."
"Who are these people?"
"Um our boyfriends and Will's girlfriend of the week."
"Ok." Francie continued to tell Alexandra stories behind each picture. At long last, she found the perfect picture. It was just a picture of Sydney. Francie couldn't tell where it was, but all she knew, is that there wasn't a more perfect picture. Alexandra went about working on her angel.
*Ring* Francie ran for the phone. "Hello?" She said.
"Hey Francie." Vaughn's voice said back. "I do believe my little angel is at your house."
"She is, but I need to talk to you first." Francie went into the bedroom.
"Ok."
"She doesn't know that Sydney is alive."
"I know. It just hasn't come up."
"You kinda need to tell her."
"I will, we're only setting up surveillance today. We won't actually be able to see her until tomorrow."
"You need to tell her."
"We're not sure that we have the right Jessica English"
"Just tell her." Francie came out of the bedroom and handed the phone to Alexandra. Francie didn't hear the rest of the conversation. Instead she picked up the mud picture and put it in the bottom of her picture box. She didn't need pictures to remind her of Sydney. Alexandra was all she need. Plus, she had complete faith that this time, Vaughn wasn't coming home empty handed.