I meant to post this chapter yesterday, when it was the one year anniversary of this story. Wow, a whole year. God. Thanks for being such a great group of readers, even when I suck at posting on time! I'm looking at two more chapters for this fic. So make those reviews good!
* * * * *
Vaughn led a blindfolded Sydney to the drafty building. "Where are you taking me Michael?" Sydney laughed.
"You'll see."
"We don't have time for this, we have to pick up Alex."
"Don't worry about it. Your father knows that he has got Alex until tomorrow afternoon."
Sydney got a mischievous smile on her face. "We have all night?"
"All night."
"Good. Now, where are you taking me?"
"Can't you wait?"
"Not much longer."
"Good because we're here." Vaughn gingerly untied the blindfold, letting Sydney take in their surroundings. "Do you know where we are?" He asked, hoping for some sort of connection.
Sydney looked around. It took her a minute, before a smile spread across her lips. "This is our warehouse."
"Yep." Vaughn proudly answered.
"You proposed to me over there." Sydney said, pointing to the corner where they used to always meet.
"Yeah."
"Why did you take me here?"
"Dinner." Vaughn cleared his throat and the sound echoed through the practically empty warehouse. From a door Sydney had rarely noticed in all of her warehouse trips, came two teens, carrying a table, all set. A third had two lit candles in his hands. Silently they set the table down, and the two candles were placed on the table, then they promptly left. Sydney just stared in awe at what was done before her. Vaughn only looked at her, a huge grin spread across his face. The two that carried the table in, returned carrying two chairs, and then left.
"What is this Michael?" Sydney asked, thoroughly amused.
"Dinner."
"This is so amazing."
"I just paid Dixon's kids to do this for me. And one of their friends."
"You did all this for me?"
"All this, and I dropped Alexandra off at your dad's." Vaughn said, one upping himself. Sydney laughed. "Have a seat mi lady."
"Thank you."
"And on tonight's menu we have a lovely champagne."
"Mmmm…"
"Followed by a nice Chicken Caesar salad."
"My favorite."
"And then followed by…"
"There's more?!"
"Just a triple chocolate fudge cake."
"Are you kidding me?"
"Nope."
"Good, because that all sounds so heavenly." Vaughn beamed with pride. Sydney paused for a minute, deep in thought. "You did something similar to this when you proposed, right?" Sydney said, hoping for a glimmer of a memory.
"Actually no. First date yes, but not when I proposed."
"No?"
"No. I proposed in the warehouse. But we didn't stay for any reason because,"
"I had to leave for a mission in thirty minutes." Sydney finished. "You drove me to the airport, and tried to use your CIA badge to escort me all the way to the gate. But they wouldn't let you past security."
"Yeah."
"But somehow you got past security and met me at the gate when I returned."
"I never told you this, but I had to buy a ticket to do that for you."
Sydney laughed. "Really?"
"Yeah. I would still buy a world for you."
Sydney blushed and leaned in to kiss her husband. "I know. You can see it in your eyes. You can hear it in your voice. You can feel it in your touch. I don't know if I have ever made my self as clear as you do. I would buy a world for you too." Sydney softly whispered before letting her lips tenderly kiss Vaughn's.
Vaughn gently woke Sydney the next morning. "Syd, we need to get up now."
"What time is it?" She groggily asked.
"Almost twelve."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. Come on. I promised your dad that we would pick Alexandra up before one."
"I want her to tell her about everything I remember." Sydney said. "I can't wait to tell her about how I remember the day she was born, like I sometimes tell Juliana."
"Tell me about it."
"What?"
"I wasn't there when my youngest daughter was born, and I want to know what it was like. And since I wasn't there, you are going to tell me."
"Ok." Sydney said, kissing Vaughn. "Juli was born on March 6. I had been in and out of hospitals since I lost my memory, so I still didn't have a job. But when I wasn't in a hospital, I was staying with Rosa. And I was at a hospital when I went into labor with Juliana. Rosa came rushing over from work. Luis was actually my doctor. That was how they met. I was in labor for like nine hours. And when Juli finally came out, and I looked into her little eyes, and she held my finger in her little hand, I knew that she was my key to my past. I thought about naming her Alexis."
"That would have been so bad when I found you. Having too daughters named Alex!" Vaughn joked. Sydney laughed along with him.
"Good thing that Rosa couldn't say Alexis too well."
"No kidding."
"But until I decided on Juliana Kathryn, I just called her My Key. Sometimes I still do."
"Nice to see that some names just don't die when it doesn't fit our first born."
"The heart never forgets."
"So you say."
"The heart loves forever."
"Good. Then I love you forever." Vaughn said, getting close to Sydney.
"Now that I've found my way back to your heart again, I love you for all eternity." Sydney whispered.
"Always glad to hear that. Come on, we have to go get our darling daughter, from her grandfather." Vaughn said, pulling Sydney to an upright position.
"We should go out to lunch. My dad too."
"I'll call Francie's restaurant and tell her we're coming."
"Francie?"
"Too soon?"
"What?"
"Francie has been your best friend since high school. Do you remember?"
"I remember you mentioning her. I don't remember Francie."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm getting used to the idea. I guess. I just- you know what? Never mind the whole going out to eat thing. Let's just invite my dad over instead. You go pick Alex up, and I'll cook a good old fashioned brunch for us."
"Alright."
Nearly an hour later, Vaughn pulled into the driveway, and Alexandra came bursting out of the car door, and into the house. "Mommy!" She called out, immediately seeking out her mother in the kitchen.
"Did you have fun Alex?"
"Yup!"
"Hey." Vaughn greeted.
"Is Dad here?"
"No. He declined my offer."
"Well, I made more than enough food."
"What's lunch?" Alexandra inquired peering into the oven.
"Breakfast."
"You mean like pancakes and stuff!?!"
"Yes. Exactly like pancakes and stuff."
"I love pancakes."
"Me too." Sydney put out the plate of pancakes on the table, and everyone hungrily dug in. As Sydney looked around at her happy family, sitting around eating pancakes for breakfast, something within her stirred. This was what family was about. Eating around a table, chatting about everything that means nothing or everything that means everything, displayed a level of love that could never be measured. Sydney beamed down at her oldest daughter. But Sydney stared at the fourth side of the table. Someone was missing. Juliana was missing. Sydney knew that her family would never be complete, until she and Juliana had moved.
The rest of the afternoon, and into the evening, Sydney felt at peace. They called Juliana, and she was more than thrilled to hear everyone talk to her. She spoke a couple things in English to show her father how she was working on her English before they moved. Sydney who was on the phone in another room, couldn't have been prouder of her little girl.
After dropping Alexandra off at school, Sydney returned back to the house, feeling at loss for words. She had one job to do. To begin work on Juliana's new bedroom. Sydney looked into the playroom, where Alexandra's toys were still scattered all over the floor, despite both Sydney's and Vaughn's insists that she clean it up last night. The office, which was also in need of moving, was just as bad, and Vaughn profusely apoligised about not cleaning it, before he kissed Sydney and left for work. Sydney bent down and began to throw Juliana's toys into boxes. The silence disturbed her, and she quickly found herself picking up the phone.
Mia arrived after dropping her girls off at Kindergarten. All decked out in a pair of overalls, and her hair up, she was ready to work. "You ready to change the room with me?" Sydney asked, holding two of Alexandra's dolls in her hands.
Mia smiled. "Oh yeah." Sydney escorted Mia down the hall to where the two rooms were already half packed. "How did those two get so much stuff?"
Sydney laughed. "I have no idea. I had Alex go through her stuff, and she put most of the stuff into three boxes, stuff she wants to keep, stuff she wants to give to Juli, and then sell or trash stuff on Friday night. But then she decided to play with her stuff last night, and well, didn't pick up again."
"How much stuff did she chose to throw away?"
"A puzzle with missing pieces, and a broken toy phone."
Mia chuckled. "What is she giving to Juliana?"
"More than I thought she would, but Michael made her put some stuff into the box that she's out grown."
"So what's the plan?" Mia asked, picking up one of Alexandra's boxes, and following Sydney.
"We're getting rid of the playroom, and moving the office into the old playroom, then painting the office, and transform it into Alexandra's bedroom, so that we can turn Alexandra's old bedroom into Juliana's new room." Sydney laughed. "And there is probably an easier way to do all of that, but this is the way everything works out so that, it just works out. Thanks so much for helping me out with this."
"No problem."
"And thanks for not telling Will anything yet, either."
"I understand. There are some things that my husband shouldn't know. It's the reporter in him. How did the regression therapy go?"
"Well. I'm hoping that my sessions will give me a little push towards the right direction, and let my own mind fill in the blanks." Sydney paused. "Were we close before I disappeared?"
Mia drew in a deep breath. "No, not really. We were friends, but I had only known you for a year, and everyone we were surrounded by knew you longer. Will has known you since you were in college, Francie, god, I don't know how far back you two go, and there was your husband, and then his friend Eric. They had known you for years, sort of making a rift between the two of us. I had always wanted to get to know you better."
That night, Sydney bolted up in a cold sweat. The moonlight shone brightly through the curtains, illuminating the chair beside the closet. Sydney's heavy breathing didn't seem to disturb anything but the silence. Everything felt so real. Sydney threw back her covers, and put her feet down on the cold floor. She looked over at Vaughn, who still slept soundly beside her. Grabbing her bathrobe on the way out, Sydney found herself creeping towards Alexandra's room. Hoping that the creaky door wouldn't wake her, Sydney pushed the door open. She smiled at the sight of her eldest daughter sleeping safely and soundly. Sydney stepped over Alexandra's boxes, and sat down in the rocking chair at the foot of the child's bed. She looked at her daughter again, and found herself doing something she never imagined herself doing. Sydney felt the stingy burn of tears flowing down her cheeks.
"Hey." Vaughn whispered, entering Alexandra's room. He looked over at his sobbing wife, and went over and wrapped his arms around her. "You ok?"
"It was so vivid." She confessed, burying her face in his arms.
"Come on, let's talk about this somewhere else so we don't wake Alexandra." Sydney let Vaughn help her up, and lead her to the living room. He left her sitting on the couch while he went and got Sydney a bowl of coffee ice cream, and a bowl of chocolate mint for himself. "Did you have a dream, Syd?"
"Yeah. I felt like I was there. I could smell everything, I could feel the pain."
"Dr. Barnett said that some memories come through to you in vivid dreams."
"It was just so…" Sydney's voice trailed off, as she just stared at her bowl of ice cream, spinning the frozen food around in circles, slowly melting it.
Vaughn inched closer to her, and put a supportive arm around her. "Tell me about it Syd."
*****Flashback*****
"There you go, all clean Angel." Sydney said, drying the infant Alexandra off. The infant smiled at her mother, and warmed Sydney's heart. "Daddy's coming home tomorrow. And we're going to tell him to be a desk jockey. No more dangerous missions for him, huh Angel?" Sydney smiled at her little girl, and put a diaper on, followed by a pink dress. Alexandra reached up for her mother's finger, and Sydney was all to happy to give her index finger to the child. From behind her, Sydney heard the sound of a shutting door. She spun around, holding Alexandra close to her.
"Who's there?" She demanded. Silence came her reply. "Hello?" She clutched the infant even closer. She let her spy instincts take over, and Sydney held Alexandra close, and went to investigate the noise.
She found a man dressed solely in black, and a black ski mask standing in the front foyer. "Give the baby to me." He ordered, a voice box distorting his voice.
"No." Sydney refused. She ran into the nursery and set Alexandra in her crib. "Stay quiet Angel." She whispered before shutting the nursery door to face the kidnapper.
"Why do you want her?" Sydney demanded, her fists up, ready to fight to the death for Alexandra.
"She is the prophecy."
"NO!" Sydney made her first lunge at the stranger. She quickly threw him to the ground. "You will never get my daughter." She said, throwing her hands around his neck. He began to cough and kick with the lack of oxygen. After a struggle, he was able to get Sydney to back off, and the fight moved to the kitchen.
"For someone that just had a baby, you fight well." He taunted.
"Shut the hell up." Sydney said, before kicking him in the head. He stumbled backwards, giving Sydney enough time to grab a knife from the counter. She began waving it at him. "Who are you working for?" She demanded, stepping closer to the man. He took two steps backwards, backing into a corner. "You have no escape now, who do you work for?"
"I do not work for anyone."
Even through a voice box, Sydney could tell that he was lying. "Liar." She hissed. Sydney took the knife and held it to his throat. "Who do you work for? And what do you want with my baby?"
The man only stood silent. He gagged a little as Sydney pressed harder. Sydney took the knife and stabbed him in the belly, not mortally wounded, but he still doubled over in pain. Sydney grabbed the ski mask, and threw it off, finding the face of Sark staring back at her. "You bastard." She said.
"I'm working alone. This I promise you."
"Why do you want Alexandra?" Sydney begged, holding the knife to his stomach again.
"I believe that it isn't you or your mother that is Rembaldi's prophecy. I believe it is your daughter." Sydney drew in a deep breath. She had had enough of Rembaldi and all of his prophecy talk when she was with the CIA. But she was done with that life, and she couldn't escape it.
"No, she's not." Sydney said, taking the knife again, this time stabbing in the heart. Sark looked at Sydney with a sad eye, before they rolled back into his head. Sydney quickly jumped up to the sink, and washed the blood off her hands. She went back to the nursery, where Alexandra was wailing for her mother's touch. Sydney scooped up the child.
"This will be our little secret. Ok Angel?"
Sydney threw a bloody Sark into the trunk of her car, keeping a layer of trash bags to protect the fabric from the blood. Lovingly, she put Alexandra into her car seat, and she drove to the Joint Task Force. Baby in hand, Sydney marched into Director Weiss' office.
"Hey Syd. We weren't expecting to ever see you here again." Weiss said, greeting Sydney. "And hello to little Miss Alexandra."
"I need your help with something Eric, and I need you to keep your mouth quiet about it too." Sydney led him to her car, where she showed him Sark.
"Holy shit Syd! What the hell is a bloody Sark doing in your car?"
"He tried to kidnap Alex. And when I started to fight him. He tried to kill me. I had to do something to protect my daughter."
"Sydney."
"Weiss, you're the director now, can you do something about this, and keep it under wraps."
Eric looked at his friend to see if there was something, anything, that would change her mind about the whole situation, and found none. "I'll see what I can do."
By the time Vaughn had gotten home the next night, Sydney was able to get the blood out of the kitchen, and Sark disposed of. "I missed you." He said, kissing his wife, and taking Alexandra from her arms. "And I missed you too little Angel."
"I missed you too."
"What did you need to talk to me about?"
"Huh?"
"Yesterday morning, when I called, you said that you had something you needed to talk to me about?"
Sydney remembered that he was talking about how she wanted to discuss with him the possibility of being a desk jockey. She smiled. "Never mind about that." She assured him. "It was nothing."
"Ok."
*****End Flashback*****
Vaughn sat there in shock at the dream Sydney had just told him. "Do you think it's a memory?" He asked, holding the sobbing Sydney.
"God, I hope not."
"It would be alright if it was you know. I would have done the exact same thing if it was me."
"No, it's not alright Michael. I killed a man if it's true."
"Sydney, I don't know if this is what you want to hear. But in our line of work, we had to kill a lot of people. But they were all trying to kill us. Sark was trying to take Alexandra, and he was trying to kill you. It was either kill or be killed." Sydney took little comfort in his words. "We'll call Weiss. He will know if your dream was a memory or not."
"Good idea."
Vaughn picked up the phone, and dialed his best friend's house, waking him. Sydney listened carefully to Vaughn's end. He hung up the phone, and turned to Sydney. "I'm sorry Dear."
Sydney found her solace in Vaughn's chest. Feeling his heart beat, and his chest go up and down, Sydney just let the tears flow. "I killed a man." She just whispered over and over. Vaughn just rocked her.
Saturday couldn't have come any slower for Sydney. They quickly dropped Alexandra off at her grandfather's again, and drove to the joint task force. She smiled at familiar faces, and with a bounce in her step, Sydney waltzed into Barnett's office.
"Let's get started, shall we?" Sydney begged.
Barnett looked at the eager woman in front of her. "Did you remember much on you own?"
"A little bit." Sydney admitted. "But it was more of the little things, like Vaughn took me to the warehouse, and I remembered that he proposed to me there."
"That is an excellent start. Any dreams that could be considered a memory?"
"Can we just start the regression therapy?"
"We can as soon as you answer these questions. Did you have any particularly vivid dreams this week?"
Sydney smiled. "Not that I can remember."
* * * * *