* * * * *
*****Flashback*****
Sydney and Larson strutted off the plane. The wild costumes didn't even attempt to blend in with everyone else around them. Sydney's hair was spiked blue and red; while Larson was lucky enough to have only one color, pink. His hair matched his pink leather jacket, and black work suit. Sydney wore a deep green miniskirt, and a plaid sweater vest over a white blouse. As they walked through the terminal, people gave them odd looks. And who wouldn't? "How are we supposed to be acting like a normal couple when we look like this?" Larson asked, as he readjusted his pink pleather pants.
"I have never seen anyone else that looks remotely like we do, ever. And I have been some pretty weird places." Sydney answered, as they passed through a food court. Looking at all the food around her, Sydney felt sick. "I need to dash into the bathroom really quick." Sydney took off to a short run to the bathroom. She banged the stall door open, and immediately fell to her knees, loosing all of the food that was in her stomach. Still a little shaken, Sydney returned to Larson.
"Feeling better?"
"I have been doing this for so long; you'd think I'd have an iron stomach for airline food." Sydney replied.
"I sometimes still get sick with it." Larson admitted. Larson looked at his partner, and saw how she still didn't look well, and put his arm around her, getting into character. "Come on Honey. Let's get our luggage, and head to the hotel so you can rest as much as possible before the party." His thick, native, southern drawl shining clear. Sydney held no objections to his suggestion, and followed Larson. Upon entering the hotel room, Sydney went running to the bathroom again.
"I thought that there was nothing left." She complained, plopping onto the bed.
"You did have those two Advil's, for the headache, in the taxi." Larson pointed out. Sydney rolled over and reached for the phone. "Who are you calling?"
"Vaughn. Just to let him know that I landed safely."
Sydney dialed the first 4 numbers before sprinting back to the bathroom. "Are you sure that it was the plane food?"
Sydney didn't answer him. Instead she just dialed home. While Sydney was talking to her husband, Larson began setting up the op tech.
"Hey Honey."
"Hey Syd. How was the flight?"
Sydney bit her lip, and decided not to tell him about feeling sick. "It was fine. Long, but fine."
"I am glad to hear. Oh listen, Will called today, and announced that Mia was pregnant." Vaughn announced for their friends.
"Oh! That is great, send them my congratulations if you see them before I get back."
"They are both ecstatic about it."
"Can't blame them. Remember how happy we were about finding out about Alex?"
"Yeah." Vaughn said dreamily. There was a loud, barbaric cry from Vaughn's end, and a chuckle escaped both their lips. "Oh how that all changed. Can we bring her back?"
"Very cute Honey."
"I am going to go deal with Alexandra, and let you get ready. When is the party?"
"Two hours."
"I love you Sydney."
"I love you too Michael." Sydney ended before hanging up the phone. She turned to Larson who was setting up some of Marshall's gadgets. "Do you need any help?"
"You just rest. We need you well for the party tonight. I'll give you enough time to change into your dress and do your hair and make-up. I promise." Sydney gave a weak smile, and curled up to take a nap.
Larson gently prodded Sydney awake. "Hey Syd. We've got 45 minutes for you get beautiful."
The two made a grand entrance in the ballroom. After mingling a while, Larson grabbed Sydney's arm. "There's Kristov. I'll distract him. Are you feeling well enough to go get the document?"
"Get back to me in an hour." Sydney admitted.
"We don't have an hour."
"Could we possibly reverse the roles?"
"Syd, I'm not nearly as a talented fighter as you. If there are more than two guards, I'm done for."
"Excuse me." Sydney said, pushing her way through the crowd to run to the restroom to throw up.
Sheepishly Sydney returned to Larson at the party. "That's it. You are not feeling well to go get the document. You and I are switching roles. I'll radio you for help if I need it. And we get home, I am making sure that Mike takes you to the doctor."
Sydney looked at Larson gratefully, and turned on her radio. Larson nodded, and turned on his. Sydney gave him a thankful smile, and went in search of Kristov.
"You are too kind." Sydney tempted as Kristov handed Sydney a glass of champagne.
"And you are too beautiful." Kristov took Sydney's hand, and kissed it gently.
"Get up here Syd! I set off some kind of alarm or something!" Larson frantically hissed.
"Excuse me, I must run to the restroom." Sydney said.
"I shall be waiting for you here." Kristov promised. Sydney smiled, and gently pushing her way through the crowd, and then sprinted up to Kristov's office. She heard a commotion coming from inside. When she ran in, Larson was tied to a chair; blood was flowing rapidly out of a wound in his stomach. There was a small red hole in his right chest, and Sydney knew that she was too late. Two guards came charging at her, knives in hand. Sydney began fighting them off, throwing punches and kicks at them. One knife came up and cut her leg open. The pain was too much, and Sydney collapsed to the ground, and closed her eyes wishing that the pain would go away. When she opened them, Kristov was standing over her.
"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. And such a beautiful woman you are." An electric shocker came down, and Sydney's world went black.
*****End Flashback*****
Sydney was breathing heavily as she remembered her last mission. "Sydney, are you alright?" Barnett asked, after 'waking' Sydney.
"Yeah."
"What do you remember?" She asked.
"The mission. Oh God. Larson." Sydney began to cry as she remembered her fallen friend.
"Was the last thing you remember was Kristov?"
"Well, I woke in a dumpster. They must have taken me for dead. And then the rest is all stuff I have memories of already." Sydney said, calming down a little.
"I think that is enough for today." Barnett said.
"No please. I mean, if you're not busy or anything, I'd like to keep going." Sydney begged. "I have waited a long time to remember anything before the dumpster. And I don't want to stop now."
Barnett sighed, and looked at the clock. "Fine. I'm going to count back from three. When I get to one, I want you to tell me where you are. 3... 2... 1."
*****Flashback*****
Sydney raced her way to the warehouse. She had her opportunity to finally take down SD-6. Vaughn hadn't shown up yet, much to her disappointment. She liked him to be first. She wouldn't have to wait to see him that way. Sydney could hear his car pulling up and she got very nervous. She felt this way every time she saw Vaughn. But this time, the mere thought of seeing Vaughn wasn't all that was making her nervous. She rehearsed what she was going to say over and over in her head. She couldn't look too eager. Vaughn was a good 20 feet away from Sydney when she went rushing over. "Everything we need to take down the Alliance is on Server 47." She rushed. Vaughn looked at her surprised and confused. "That's not what I meant to say." Sydney looked down, ashamed that her well-rehearsed line didn't come out as she had planned.
Vaughn laughed. "What do you mean?"
"I had this whole thing well planned in my head, and it just came out different than I had planned."
"Well, you got your point across." Vaughn said, flashing one of his trademark smiles. Sydney felt herself go weak in the knees. Sydney didn't listen to Vaughn as he told her what he was telling her he was going to do. Instead, she pictured what she was going to do after the Alliance was destroyed.
Sydney looked around the debriefing room. She knew what they were going to be briefed on. And it was quite literally a dream come true. She listened, as every dream became a mission plan for the next night. She would occasionally smile over at Vaughn, who sat opposite of her. The second she was out of the debriefing room, sprits higher with the next day's plans, Sydney went in search of one of her best friends.
"Will!" Sydney called from across the room. Will stopped mid stride.
"What's up Sydney?"
"Do you still have that connection?" She asked, keeping her voice low. The office had ears, and everyone was listening.
"Which one?"
"You said that one of the guys at your AA meeting could score cheep tickets for just about anything."
"Yeah. Adam. Why? What tickets do you want?"
Sydney nervously looked around. "I need two Kings tickets for next week sometime."
"They don't play next week Sydney. They play Saturday."
"What's today?"
"Tuesday."
Sydney did some quick calculations in her head. "That will work. Can you get them for me?"
"Why?" Will tormented.
"I promised Vaughn I'd take him to a Kings game after the takedown." Sydney smiled brightly at the thought.
Will smiled, and nodded. "I'll see what I can muster."
"Thanks Will."
Sydney could barely control herself the next day as she sat, trying to follow the plan. Will's connection came through, and two Kings tickets were waiting for her and Vaughn. She sat at her desk at SD-6. Counting down the seconds before the CIA team came. 2173, 2172… The clock never seemed to tick fast enough. She pretended to be busying herself. But she just kept counting down. 2167. 2166. 2165. Sydney smiled as she passed Dixon, and then glanced up at the clock. Inwardly, she cheered. 2156 seconds left! She took a quick glance over at Sloane, who was talking on the phone still. As long as he was still in his office at the time of the take down, everything would be all right. She had to keep Sloane in his office. But she couldn't go into his office herself. If she were in there at the start of the takedown, her life would be stolen from her.
She rehearsed what she was going to say to Vaughn again. Last time she tried to talk to him, what she had planned to say came out differently. I have some great tickets to the Kings game on Saturday; do you want to come with me? Sydney felt pretty confident about that. It sounded like it was a date, but it didn't make her sound desperate. I have some great tickets to the Kings game on Saturday; do you want to come with me? She repeated to herself. Sydney glanced up at the clock again. 2098. 2097. 2096. She double-checked the time with her watch. 2094. She sighed and turned back to her computer, hoping that she could check her email before the CIA team came. She knew that there was no point in finishing the report that Sloane told her to do. Best-case scenario, the next day, she would be free. SD-6 and the alliance would be gone forever. Worst-case scenario, she'd be dead. Either way, there was no way that the report would be due the next day. 2078.
Sydney's cell phone rang. Thankful for a distraction of any sort, Sydney leaned over and answered the phone. "Hello?" Sydney asked, not recognizing the caller ID.
"Syd! Hey! Listen, we're going to have to meet at the club 30 minutes before scheduled ok? I've got a party to go to afterwards. Some boring work thing." Vaughn said. Sydney smiled, 270 seconds and counting. "Sydney, is that cool?"
"Yeah. Perfect. Works better for me anyway. I'll see you then."
"Yeah, we'll see you then." Sydney heaved a sigh of relief, and hung up her phone. 265. 264. 263. Sydney opened her mailbox. Empty. No new e-mail to read, no old e-mails to read. Sydney clenched her teeth. 257. She then went about her business, and read her spam. She never read spam while at SD-6. She only checked her spam at her home account, because sometimes she'd get encrypted messages from the CIA through spam. But they were smart enough not to send it to SD-6.
"I understand." Dixon said, sitting down in his chair.
"Understand what?" Sydney asked, whipping around.
"The feeling that you don't want to do the report so badly that you read your spam."
Sydney chucked. Right. That's it Dixon. She thought. "I just don't have the patience to sit down and type today."
"Know that feeling too." Dixon held up his report.
Sydney rubbed her temples. "Jealous." She simply stated. She heard commotion coming from the security room. Panic shouts echoed through the room. Glancing down at her watched, Sydney was shocked. 15. 14. 13. 12. 11. She had been talking to Dixon so long that the last 4 minutes just flew by. Sydney's heart fluttered. 3. 2. 1. Eight men in black masks came barging in, firing shots. Sydney did as Kendall had told her the day before. She made her way to the back of the pack, and took a spare gun from the guy in back. Rounds were fired, and the office was soon a mess of flying paper, and gun smoke as both CIA and SD-6 attempted to gain control of the facilities.
Sydney and Jack stormed towards Sloane's office, where he sat too stunned for words in his chair. The door was locked, and the windows were bullet proof, causing little problem for the two experienced agents. Jack ran to the server room, and began to override the security codes. He shouted at Sydney to try the door again, but it was still locked tight. Sydney quickly grabbed Marshall from the huddle on the floor, and dragged him to the server room.
"Open Sloane's office door." Sydney said. "Please Marshall."
"It's not possible. It will only lock from the inside. I designed it that way. Mr. Sloane wanted…"
"We need to open the door Marshall." Jack warned, a gun thrust in Marshall's back.
"I'll see what I can do." Marshall said, before he began to type madly. Sydney dashed back to Sloane's door. Jack called again, and this time Sydney was able to open the door. Jack quickly joined her.
They said nothing as they cuffed Sloane, and lead him outside. Victoriously, the CIA agents cheered, causing Sydney to smile as bright as the sun. Jack shoved Sloane into the wagon, and ushered for Sydney to get in. "Actually, I'm going to check on things inside. I'll meet you at headquarters." Sydney said, returning back inside the messy office. Paper was scattered everywhere, as people threw their desks over for a little bit of protection from the flying bullets. The ground beneath Sydney crunched as she walked over broken glass. She paused momentarily at where her desk sat. Like most of the other desks in the room, it had been overturned, and holes pierced it. She picked up her abandoned phone.
"What's the meaning of this Sydney?" Dixon begged as he was escorted out of the room in cuffs. Sydney looked apologetically at her friend, but had no words for him. Sydney looked at all of her coworkers as they were escorted out of the building; confusion; anger; hatred; sadness were all burning in their eyes. Sydney couldn't stop the few tears from trickling down her cheeks as they glared at her.
From across the room, Vaughn looked over at Sydney. His black mask still hid his face. He saw the pain she felt. "Hey, I'll be right back." Vaughn told Weiss who was working next to him. Vaughn walked over to Sydney.
Sydney's back was turned to Vaughn. She spun around when she heard her name being called out through the chaos. The only problem was that there were three other masked men, with the same build as Vaughn, walking towards her. Sydney looked confused. Vaughn ripped off his mask, and picked up his pace towards Sydney. Sydney met him halfway. No words were exchanged as their lips met for the first time. The world ceased to exist, as only they spun in the universe.
"Tickets. Game. Saturday." Sydney said, as they broke apart for air.
"Ditto." Vaughn said, reaching for Sydney again.
"I guess. We. Think. Alike."
"Yeah."
"Alright! Who called between 5 and 10 minutes?" Weiss called out. "Hooked up in 8 minutes, come on people, who called it. The $350 is yours!"
Sydney froze. "They were betting on us."
"And I had that time slot." Vaughn smiled. "And you and I are going to celebrate by going out to dinner tonight."
"Sounds great."
"Come on, let's go get my winnings."
"I had that slot." Vaughn informed Weiss, leading Sydney by the hand.
"How did you know about our little pool? And that is no fair that you got to pick your slot. You could have made it for as long as you wanted to get the money."
"No. I couldn't have waited much longer." Vaughn admitted, smiling brightly at Sydney. "Come on, where's the money, I need to take Sydney out to a nice restaurant to celebrate."
"Fine. It's in the truck. But how did you get into the pool?"
"Agent Keelan, he came up to me…"
"That rookie! I knew that I shouldn't have involved him." Weiss complained.
"I don't think he knew who I was because he said, 'What time slot do you have for the Agent Vaughn and Bristow kiss?' He handed me the printout of the list, and I put my $20 down for the 5-10 minute slot."
Weiss pulled out a list from his pocket. "Curses upon you."
"You're the one that didn't check the list to see if Vaughn was on there." Sydney reminded him.
"Hey, at least I get a third of the first pool." Weiss said.
"There is more than one!" Sydney said shocked.
"Oh yeah. I was part of the much smaller, but higher stakes saying that it would happen today, in under an hour."
"Dear lord, our lives have become a gamble." Sydney said, burying her head into Vaughn's shoulder.
"Better for us, than against us." Vaughn said, his lips meeting Sydney's again.
*****End Flashback*****
Barnett had problems getting Sydney out of her trance the second time around. Sydney emerged with a small smile spread across her lips. "Mrs. Vaughn?"
"Yeah."
"I think we've had enough for today."
"Please. Just one more?" Sydney begged. Memories were nicotine.
"Let's just see what this session will uncover this week."
"Please."
"Mrs. Vaughn, I'm afraid of what anymore could do to your psyche. I don't think that you are aware that as a CIA agent, you compartmentalized far too much. I cannot tell you what could happen if we uncovered something that you compartmentalized."
"I'll compartmentalize it again. Please. I need more about my past. Have you ever not known who you are?"
"No, but-"
"My daughter used to beg me to tell her about her Daddy, and I couldn't say anything, because the first thing I remember about anything was waking up in a dumpster already pregnant. For all I knew, I could have been raped. I don't think that you know what that is like either."
"You're right, but I don't think you know the risks."
Sydney quickly cut in. "I knew the risks of joining the CIA, and remaining in the CIA. It was obviously my choice. Please, if you have the time."
"I don't think that you-"
"Listen, give me a straight answer. Are you going to do this one more time, or are you going to make me wait a week for me to figure out who I am?"
Barnett sighed. "You may not be able to compartmentalize again."
"I'll sign a waiver or something saying I won't sue for whatever we uncover."
Barnett gave a small chuckle. "That won't be necessary."
"I will just be doing this again in a week anyway. What is seven little days?"
"You will be getting memories on your own now. This therapy we're doing will target specific memories. It will jog the rest of your memory."
"What if we focused on something aside from the CIA?"
"I'm afraid I don't follow you."
"Could we maybe try to recover a memory involving Alexandra? Maybe I could go home tonight, and tell her that I remember singing lullabies to her when she cried, or I remember her first steps, or her first words. I'm her mother, and I can't tell her these things." Sydney was pleading so hard that she was close to tears. "Please. One more. That's all I ask."
Barnett took a deep breath. "Fine. I am going to countdown backwards from 10…9…8…7…"
*****Flashback*****
A very pregnant Sydney sat on the couch, her feet propped up on the end of the couch. A book was open, but she wasn't really reading it. Vaughn was supposed to be home any second, and she had arranged a romantic dinner for them, and he didn't know about it. One eye was glued to the door, watching carefully for any sort of movement. She and Vaughn had been married almost six years, and there wasn't a day that went by that Sydney didn't believe it was a dream.
Vaughn's old dog's ears perked up. The dog's movement did not slide past Sydney. The dog, Donovan, got up from his spot on the rug, made his way to the door, and lay next to the coat rack, as he had done everyday for years. Sydney closed her book with a smile. He was finally home. Sydney struggled to get up. Failing three times before she was finally able to get off the couch. She greeted Vaughn by the door.
"Welcome home Honey." She said pulling Vaughn into a kiss before he had even stepped over the threshold.
"Hello dear. What's this all about?" He asked, pointing to the romantic table.
"Ever since I left on my maternity leave, I have had way too much time on my hands, so I thought that this would be a nice surprise. Do you like it?"
"I love it."
"Good, come on. Let's eat."
Vaughn smiled, and sat at the table, as Sydney brought out the food. "Mmm… Mashed potatoes and roast beef." Vaughn's mouth began to water.
"That's not all." Sydney retreated back to the kitchen and pulled out two more dishes. "Three bean casserole, and home-made from scratch biscuits."
"Wow, Syd. This smells so good."
"And a cake for dessert."
"You were busy today."
"And bored. Why couldn't you guys let me leave for my leave after this baby is born?"
"Because it's company policy."
"I am bored."
"Sydney." Vaughn tried again. Sydney just kept plowing through her rant. Vaughn knew that she wouldn't stop until she was done. She had been that way her entire pregnancy. She had to finish what she had started. Vaughn knew that he had to be patient with her, and keep trying to reach her until she was done.
"It doesn't help that your little hockey player has decided to be a week late."
"Sydney."
"I almost went shopping for some more stuff today, but then I remembered that we had everything we need, and there isn't any more room for any more stuff in the nursery."
"Sydney."
"And then I was going to do the laundry, but realized that I did it all yesterday. So I washed all of the stuff we wore yesterday, but I was done by 9:00."
"Sydney."
"I cleaned the house. And our bedroom is organized."
"I thought you did that yesterday."
"I did do that. But I redid it."
"Do you realize how hard it was for me to get dressed this morning while you were still sleeping?" Vaughn groaned. His toes still throbbed when he put too much pressure on them after stubbing them on a dresser that had moved three feet from where it used to be to make room for the hamper, which was moved to make room for the bed. This was all to allow a faster exit when the baby began to cry in the room next to them. But Vaughn was having problems getting used to the new layout.
"There were some problems. I heard you stub your toe this morning."
"Sydney."
"And then I watched a movie, and I am so bored Michael! Maybe they will let me be a desk jockey until the baby is born."
"Are you ever going to let me talk? Or are you just going to sit there and ramble?"
"I'm sorry."
"Listen, this is the same way my sister got when she had to leave work too. But as soon as she is born, I don't think that you're going to have that problem."
"You think it's going to be a girl?" Sydney said. She held in her arms the three bean casserole, and was scooping it onto her plate. But she was too distracted by the conversation to realize that her plate was so full of the casserole that there wasn't room for anything else. Vaughn smiled and took the bowl away from his wife. Sydney looked down at her plate, realizing what she had done.
"Yes, I think it's going to be a girl." Vaughn picked up a fork-full of potatoes, and held it out for Sydney to take a bite, which she graciously accepted. "And we both agree that Bridget Kathryn is the best name for her."
"Yeah. Your mother would really like that." Sydney reached over, and served Vaughn some of the three-bean casserole that she had piled onto her plate.
"I know."
"Too bad it's a boy." Sydney teased.
"You think it's a boy?"
"We've gone over this 100 times! Yes."
"I know. It's my favorite topic." Vaughn shyly admitted. If Weiss ever found out that talking about whether the baby was a boy or girl was his favorite topic, Vaughn would never live it down.
Sydney gave a small smile. "I know, mine too."
"I thought of a middle name today." The boy's middle name was up in the air. Neither could choose, even though the first name was so obvious, the middle name was hard.
"You did?"
"Yes. We both like William, after my dad, and Will. For the first name."
"Yes. Still love it."
"Well, you just change your mind so much. And Eric was in my office."
"Oh, please say it isn't so. He didn't convince you of Eric did you?"
"Well,"
"Vaughn!" Sydney said, in mock anger.
"Think of it this way. We can tell everyone that the middle name is after your grandfather, which is true, but we can let Eric believe that it's after him. That's what we were thinking about doing with William."
"Only Will would know that it was after your father."
"Sydney, say it. It sounds good."
"William Eric Vaughn." Sydney thought on it for a moment. "That does sound nice." Sydney admitted. "Dad would like that we named him after his father."
"That's what I thought."
"And it would get Eric off our back about naming any of our kids after him."
"That too."
They spent the rest of dinner talking about every mundane thing known to man. Sydney lay awake for several hours, just staring at the ceiling. Rest. That's all she had been told to do for months. The only thing that rest had gotten her was sleepless nights. Sydney's face suddenly froze to one of horror.
"Vaughn." Sydney said, shaking her sleeping husband awake.
"Whaisit?" He slurred.
"My water broke." She told him.
"I'll get you a new glass." Vaughn said. "But in the morning. I'm sleeping Sydney."
"No, Honey. It's time."
"For what?" Vaughn asked, turning over and looking at Sydney. His eyes suddenly lit up with realization. "Oh my goodness! It's time!" He jumped out of bed and threw on a pair of pants, and ran over to help Sydney up.
Vaughn drove to the hospital, breaking several traffic laws along the way. "Don't get in an accident!" Sydney yelled at him.
"Are you ok Sydney?" Came his only reply.
"I'll be fine, unless you get us killed by driving like that."
"Are you ok Sydney?"
Sydney sighed, and knew that there was no more arguing with him. "Yeah." She said, as she double-checked her seat belt.
Vaughn ran into the hospital, leaving Sydney alone in the car while he ran to get a wheelchair, despite her heavy protests. But Sydney didn't feel like waiting. So instead she got out of the car and met him halfway. Vaughn gave her a stern, concerned look, but Sydney shot back a threatening look. A nurse led them to Sydney's room. "I am going to go call my mom, and your dad, and then everyone else. Ok?"
"Hurry back." Sydney begged.
An expectant crowd waited outside the delivery room five hours later. A tired Vaughn came out, with a dreamy smile on his face. "Girl." He told the small crowd, and then walked back in the room to be with his wife and new daughter. The nurses had just handed Sydney a little pink bundle, and she was just staring at the girl with tears in her eyes.
"Hi there. I'm your Mommy." Sydney said, taking the miniature hand.
"I'm your Daddy." Vaughn said, kissing both Sydney and the baby.
"1…2…3…4…5…"
"What are you doing Honey?"
"Counting her fingers."
"They're all there. I assure you."
"Do we have a name yet?" The nurse asked.
Sydney looked down at her new daughter. "No."
This statement, floored Vaughn. "What happened to Bridget Kathryn? I thought we agreed on that."
"Look at her Honey, she's not a Bridget."
"What if we flipped it? Kathryn Bridget?"
"No. She's not a Kathryn either."
"Sydney, do you realize how long it took us to reach Bridget Kathryn? Or William Eric? That was decided tonight."
"She's not any of those. And as soon as I hear it, I'll know."
"Alight." Vaughn said, kissing her forehead.
"Honey, you know all that stuff about me hating you, how you should die a slow and painful death, and how we're never going to have sex again?"
Vaughn chuckled. "Yeah."
"I didn't mean any of it." She said, her eyes fixated on the beauty before her.
"I know."
"How's your hand?" Sydney asked.
"It's going to be bruised for a while."
"I am so sorry Hun." Sydney leaned over and kissed Vaughn.
"It's ok."
Their friends and parents surrounded the proud parents as they stood outside the nursery window, watching their little girl. "Is that her?" Will asked
"Yep. That's baby girl Vaughn." Sydney answered.
"You better not name her after me!" Bridget Vaughn exclaimed.
"Why not Maman?"
"She isn't a Bridget."
"That's what Sydney said."
"She's a good mother already then. You don't name a baby something that they're not. Bridget isn't even her middle name. You understand son?"
"Yes Maman."
"So what were your back up names?" Mia asked.
"Kathryn was our only other name. And we were going to use as a middle name."
"She's not a Kathryn either." Bridget answered.
"She's an angel." Sydney breathed.
"Angel Vaughn." Francie said. "Sydney, as much as she is an angel, I don't think you should go and naming her Angel."
"I didn't either. I'm just saying that she's an angel."
"Our angel." Vaughn repeated putting his arm around Sydney.
"Do you guys want me to run that name through the web? See what names angel means?" Will suggested.
"We've got the baby names book with us. I'm sure we'll find something." Sydney insisted.
It was just the three of them sitting in the hospital room a little while later. Vaughn was sitting in a chair next to Sydney's bed, holding his daughter in his arms. "Angelica?" Sydney suggested.
"No. I don't like it."
"Neither do I, but it means angelic."
"Skip the meanings Sydney. I don't think we're going to find a name that way." It was then that Vaughn's cell phone began to ring. He passed the pink bundle off to her mother, and ran outside to answer it.
Outside in the hall, a father tugged at his young son's shirt. "Come back here Alex! We have to meet your new brother now. We can get candy later." But Alex's only reply came as a loud scream. Sydney laughed, and looked down at her daughter. She didn't take her eyes off of the babe until Vaughn came back.
"That was Eric. Sends his congratulations from Langley. Also suggests that Erica is a great name."
"No. She's an Alex." Sydney answered.
"Excuse me?" Vaughn said, taking her from his wife. "I don't exactly like the idea of naming my first born child after a boy's name."
"She's an Alex. Look at her. Officially it would be Alexandra, or Alexis or something. But she is an Alex."
"She's an Alexandra." Vaughn said, compromising. "She's an Alexandra Kathryn Vaughn."
"Welcome to the world Alexandra Michele Vaughn." Sydney said, taking Alexandra from her husband and holding her up.
*****End Flashback*****
"Mrs. Vaughn. It's time to wake up now." Barnett said. "How are you feeling?"
"Good. Thanks for letting me do that third time."
"But no more."
"I told you I wouldn't ask for any more."
"I understand."
Barnett reached over and handed a journal to Sydney. "I want you to write down any memories, dreams, or thoughts about what you remembered in this journal. You don't have to show me next week, but a summary would be nice."
"Alright."
"Good. I'll see you back next week Mrs. Vaughn."
"Thanks so much Dr. Barnett."
"You're welcome." Sydney stood up to leave. "Oh, and Sydney? Welcome back." Sydney smiled and left. Vaughn was waiting on the other side of the door.
"How'd it go Sydney?" She didn't say anything as she just ran to his waiting arms. She smiled, as he rubbed her back comfortingly. "Syd? How'd it go?"
Sydney smiled, and said two words she had been waiting forever to say. "I remember."
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