Disclaimer: I do not own ALIAS or any of it's characters..although I
wouldn't argue if I did over Michael Vartan...
Summary: He left her alone and jaded. And now, one phone will change her life forever. Romance S/V
A/N: Thank you for all of your kind reviews! I hope you won't be too disappointed with this chapter!
Now she understood. She took another deep breath and placed her hands down, leaved over the sink, composed herself once more, looked in the mirror and as her eyes met their reflection; there was a knock on her door.
She walked quickly towards the door and drew a deep inhale as she reached for the doorknob. The tears still racked her body slightly as her thoughts began to muddle around her in her mind. She watched with interest as she opened the door and saw that Weiss was standing there, with his head hug down. He was dressed casually in khakis and a polo shirt. "Hey." She greeted and motioned for him to come in. She forced her a smile over her white teeth. It was time for her to act. Big time.
His body remained immobile. "Are you ready to go?" He asked, as if unaware of her attempt of warmness from her tone. He refused to look at her and finally stood up straight, his hands into his pockets and looked away from her doorway. "Well?"
She was quickly taken back by his foreignness. "Yeah. Yeah sure, lemme grab my bag." She stammered from the second time that day. Her body turned back and reached to grab her little handbag and grabbed her black leather jacket resting on a nearby chair. She pulled it on and felt pain rush into her heart at the smell of the fresh leather. It always reminded her of him. She instantly thought of the night Taipei that he had worn that fateful night that she honestly new that she loved him. Back in the present, she was just about to go out the door and saw her cat sitting peacefully curled up. "Well Miss Shiva, sois gentile pour maman, s'il te plait et regarde la maison. Je t'adore." She kissed her cat affectionate on the head, stood up, and walked out the door, locking it tightly behind her.
"You talk French to your cat?" His voice in cold contrast to the warmness in her tone. He brought his eyes to meet her honey brown ones and she felt her face draw pale as the memories came flooding back.
She adjusted her bag on her shoulder and modified her body to get rid of the tremors that started to shake her body. Her lips pressed into a thin straight hair before she answered. "It was the last thing that Vaughn said to either one of us before her left. Be nice for mom please and watch the house. I love you." She recited mechanically as if it was the pledge of allegiance or the multiplication tables. She kept her eyes locked on the hallway stretching before and started to use the same foreign mannerisms that he had used with her. She started to think about what she was going to say to him and how she wouldn't go running back into his arms. How she wouldn't kiss his elegant lips or be held in his strong arms. She licked her lips in her nervousness as they reached down the hallway and into the outside world. The hallways were silent and eerily quiet. She kept her back straight and pushed her chin up as she tried so hard not to break. She watched Weiss stay a few paces in front of her and had no idea what he was thinking. He had never been that quiet in all the years that she knew him. It had been well over five years since she first entered that building with her red hair and the bleeding mouth.
Normally, she could read people and tell exactly what they were thinking and be dead on but this time, this it was different. Maybe her thoughts were so preoccupied that she didn't have the energy to do so but she couldn't figure him out. She was angry at him but she couldn't exactly tell why. But she followed Weiss into his government issued car and silently shut the door behind her without argument. Her arms quickly crossed over her body. She couldn't help the annoyance rise in her body as she contemplated how Weiss had kept such valuable information from her, "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" She asked at last as he turned the ignition and pulled out of the driveway at a frightening speed.
Weiss inhaled deeply and tightened his grip on the steering wheel as he pressed harder on the gas petal, "He begged me not to." He was pushing ten miles over the speed limit as he started down the straight road for a while. It would only be about a five minute ride. It was midday and there was absolutely no traffic, which was rather surprising for an LA street.
"And you actually listened to him?" She snapped, turning her attention to the window. "You knew how much I was following apart and you still kept that from me?" She let her hot air steam up the window as she fumed with anger.
"I had to, Sydney." His tone was beginning to match her irate one.
"You could have told me! I hate it when you patronize and coddle me! He used to do it all the time!" She shouted, letting her voice echo in the confined space. She felt her breath grew rapid over her lips and her blood start to boil in her veins.
"Sydney, listen to yourself." Weiss responded, dropping his voice. "Think about it. If you were in the same boat, would you have honestly told him? You know how protective he is over the people he loves. He thought he was protecting you. He's broken and dying right now, Syd." He didn't let her answer, "You better get yourself ready to see him. We're gonna be there in two minutes."
She pursed her lips in defeat and starred out the window. It was a horrible gray day. There was no way that this day could turn out well. She retreated back into her mind and felt her body jerk and pull against Weiss' razor sharp turns. "Jesus Weiss! Where did you get your license? Sears?" She braced herself against the door as he turned around to the left and pulled into the parking lot of the hotel, well over the speed limit.
"Central Intelligence Agency will give anyone a license nowadays." He smiled wryly and got out of his car. "C'mon, Syd. We gotta make sure he's still there." His manners changed entirely. He was back to his old self. His eyes scanned over the tire tracks he had left behind. The phrase "burning rubber" suddenly had knew meanings. He smirked slightly at his unbridled attempt to break the law.
Sydney quickly and quietly got out of the car and followed suit, scanning the narrow driveway outside the plastered white building. Her heels made a gentle noise against the harsh reality against her feet. The hotel looked so barren. It stood tall and stark against the graying sky. "What floor is his on?" She looked up and down the hotel, scanning it as if she would see her love waving to her from the balcony. Her mouth dropped open a bit as the disappointment set into her system.
"Ninth." Weiss jogged towards the revolving door and stepped inside the white and gold lobby complete with chandeliers and fresh roses everywhere. People were bustling about completely unaware of the two finest CIA agents in the world standing in the doorway. They stopped and scanned the large open lobby and discovered the elevators small hall. There was no one standing by the four doors, two of each side of the hall leading towards the master ballroom. They were gilded in gold paint with a silver tiled floor with walls covered in mirrors. Weiss leaned forward and pressed the white pearl UP button and stepped back to stand near Sydney, watching the numbers beep above the door. 18.17.16.15 and so on and so forth. Finally, what seemed like hours of anticipation, the doors slide open, revealing an empty elevator.
They filed silently inside and waited for it to arrive on the destined floor. Weiss leaned forward again and pressed the 9th floor button and again, they stood poised waiting for the elevator doors to ring open again. Stereotypical elevator music softly played beneath her thoughts that screamed loudly in brain. Sydney held her breath and clasped her bag tightly beneath her arm. She couldn't stop her heart from pounding so loudly. The elevator never moved more slowly in her life. She wanted to jump up and down and shake the jitters out of her system but she couldn't. She had to put everything in little white boxes in her head that were being stacked up on top of each other. But the stack was getting too high and one more would cause everything to spill.
Weiss finally broke the screams in her head with a meek little questions; "Are you okay, Syd?"
"What? Yeah, I'm fine." She replied, lying through her gritted teeth. The elevator dinged at the ninth floor. Weiss exited first and waited for her to follow. He stopped looking back and started to find Vaughn's room.
"It's room 947." Weiss said simply, walking towards the hallway that ran perpendicular to the elevator lobby and was greeted by a mirror with two signs, pointing in different directions. Vaughn's room was to the left. The man led the way while the younger agent followed at his heels, glancing at each room and read each number with false interest. She was secretly dreading reaching his room and was starting to wish she had never answered her phone. Much to her dismay, they reached room 947.
She hesitated and watched Weiss walk to the door and start to knock patiently. Another knock came with no answer. Another knock and no answer. Another. And another. "Mike?" Weiss finally boomed and banged on the door harder than before. He continued knocking for a few moments but there came no answer. "Michael?" He cried again. A series of pounds on the door followed again but still no answer. She felt fear rise like bile in her throat as she waited for the door to go pulling open. But it never did. Absolutely desperate and absolutely terrified with what could be lying on that floor, she started to look around, starved for answers.
Due to sheer luck, the maid was passing by, "Excuse me, miss?" Sydney walked down the hall a little bit and greeted the pretty woman with a smile.
"Yes, ma'am?" the skinny Latin woman asked, looking up from her cart. Her accent was strong. Almost as strong as her coffee colored eyes and her hazelnut hair.
She put on a false smile and started, "Mi nombre es Sydney Bristow. Trabajo con la agencia de inteligencia central para los Estados Unidos. " she reached into her coat pocket and revealed her identification, "éste es mi socio, agente Eric," Weiss revealed his badge, "Necesitamos entrar en este sitio. ¿Puede usted abrirlo para nosotros? " Sydney rambled in Spanish. (My name is Sydney Bristow. I work with the Central Intelligence Agency for the United States. This is my partner, Agent Eric Weiss. We need to enter this room. Can you open it for us?)
"Sí, falta. alegre ." The maid smiled at hearing her native language flowing over the woman's tongue. (Yes, ma'am. I will gladly.) She padded over to the door, took out her master key, and opened the door, "Allí usted va ." (There you go.) She turned, smiling once in each of their directions and carry on her way.
Sydney started to walk towards the open door but Weiss quickly stopped her. "Maybe you should wait outside. Just so I can prep him for you or..make sue that he's okay." Weiss walked into the open door and left Sydney out in the open. She watched his figure disappear into the dark room and waited to hear desperate cries and the sounds of heartache fill but the sounds never came. Instead, quiet coaxing.
Vaughn was lying on the bathroom floor still but now he was sure he was dying. This was destined to be his last day. In fact, he heard Sydney's voice utter his name and he was sure that Heaven was not far away. He reached up to the counter and found the sole bottle lying there. He took the orange tube in his hand, spilling its contents in his outstretched palm and found one round white pill. He placed it on the tip of his tongue and tasted its bittersweet taste. With the last remaining bit of salvia in his mouth, he forced the pill down his throat. It went down hard and he leaned against the hard ceramic wall and just waited for the sleeping pill to take over. All the while, he heard his door open..
He entered the room like a cop entering a crime scene. Each step was more painful than the last. He couldn't help but remember the first time Vaughn had checked into this hotel for his first round of treatment. Weiss had never seen Weiss cry so violently before. Nothing was working and everyday, he got worse and worse. Finally, he was admitted to the hospital and that was the day that he told Sydney that he was leaving. Weiss had been there every step of the way and even flew with him to New York, to Sloane Kettering for more aggressive treatments. Devlin and Kendall were more than well aware with Vaughn's situation and opened a job for him in a New York affiliated office. Both of them were sworn to secrecy. It was Vaughn's request. But now the cancer was back and more aggressive treatments were looming on the horizon. Weiss honestly didn't know if either one of them was strong enough. And now that Sydney knew..nothing good could come of this.
His eyes darted around the tiny room, walking past the bathroom, with its door securely shut, and into the heart of the room. There carpet was an ugly color forest green with gold and yellow comforters and drapes lined the depressing room. There were two twin beds, one ruffled from a restless night's sleep. Three duffle bags littered the floor and on the other bed, the one closer to the large window and balcony, there was an array of pill bottles. All five lamps were on and were shining a dull yellow light, "Mike? Are you here? Mike? Hey, Mikey?" He shouted in the room, as if the louder he spoke, the sooner he would appear.
Vaughn heard his name being called rapidly but felt too weak to respond. He felt the feverish feeling return to his body and felt the onset of chills and quakes reach the base of his spine. The voice kept ringing out. He knew the voice belonged to Eric Weiss, his best friend. He wished that he could jumped up and met him with an embracing sign but he couldn't. All he could do was mummer a reply, "I'm in here." He said in a hoarse whisper.
Finally, out of complete desperation, he started to check the three doors, two of them being closets and the third, the one to the right of the door, was the bathroom. There, huddled in a corner was the shell of a man dying by his own body. "Mike?" He approached the motionless figure, propped up against the side of the toilette. "Michael?"
His voice grew soft as he walked closer and closer. He knelt before his best friend, stepping over the sprawled limbs. "Hey, man." Weiss greeted and placed his hand on his wrist to check a pulse and to feel his temperature. He knew this drill way to well.
Vaughn forced his eyes open and now started to shake slightly, "Weiss." He had finally faded to the dying cancer patient, with a heavy heart and a revolting body. He had no color to his body and he felt like his was drowning in his own world. His eyes kept rolling back into his head as the high dose medicine flooded into his veins. His lips were pressed into a thinning straight line with less and less color with each growing breath.
"How's it going?" He managed to speak. He knew the answer from his friend but decided to ask it out of habit. His tone was soft and smooth and completely out of his normal character. But this was a desperate time for him. His best friend was dying and it felt like minutes, not days or weeks, counted. He just needed to make sure that each day was met with the same attention and passion as the last. Weiss refused to bury his friend any time soon.
"Had. Better. Days." He manage to spit out.
"Let's get you into bed, okay?" With the most sympathy in his heart, Weiss hoisted his dear friend into his arms and carried the thinning body into the closer, ruffled bed. He laid him there, stepping back to watch his peaceful somber face. Not bothering to cover him with the heavy standard hotel blankets, he sat beside him for a moment, "Mike? Are you with me?"
Vaughn groaned slightly and couldn't bring himself to open his eyes, "I'm so tired."
"Yeah, I know. Did you take anything?"
He sighed and managed to shake his head against the soft worn pillow, "Yeah."
Weiss rolled his eyes out of frustration. He didn't know exactly why he was frustrated but he just was. Maybe he was emotionally exhausted from all of this, "Sleeping pills?"
Vaughn's body was getting weaker by the second. So much so that he let his eyes shut and answer through darkness, "The only thing that helps with the-the side-the side-effects." He managed to choke out.
"I need to tell you something, Mike. Sydney's outside." He hushed his voice.
His eyes were forced to flutter open, "Sydney? She's here? You brought her?"
"Yeah, I did. I'll bring her in a minute."
"She can't see me this way."
"Suck it up."
Vaughn wanted to argue back but the pills had taken such a tough time against his system that it forced them to shut down. He was out cold..almost dead to the world. His eyes slammed shut and an induced sleep fell over him quickly and blocked out the rest of the world.
Why did good things happen to good people? Weiss stood up and watched his sleeping friend for a few more moments, making sure he was okay. Was he ever going to be okay again? Ignoring the impending response from his own mind, he stepped back out in the hallway to find Sydney pacing.
"How is he?" She pleaded desperately, not bothering to falter in her pace.
"He's sleeping." He answered like a doctor informing a mother of her son's surgery and condition. He stepped back into the room and motioned for her to follow. She did so, taking small timid steps and was overpowered by the room smelling of stale air. She struggled to breath as she cleared the little hallway and saw her love lying on the bed, shaking from fever and from the damp t-shirt he wore that was doused in sweat and from the wet clothes he used to try to cool his body. She wanted to cry out and collapse down to the ground and shake with absolute terror and pain. But instead, her mind snapped into business mode.
She walked towards him in a very professional stride and stood over him, finally letting her feelings show. She placed her hand on his forehead, "Does he have a thermometer? I think he has a fever." She caressed the lines of his face and let her fingers trace along his jaw line. Her form finally sat down near his rib cage and watched him with the interest of a small child.
Weiss nodded silently and turned towards the three bags and started to empty the first duffle bag onto the ugly carpeted floor and quickly found the sought after item, "Here."
She reached behind her, not bothering to turn around, and accepted the plastic tool and placed it in his ear and clicked the little button to get the degree of his body. Removing it from his sleeping form, she looked the digital reading sorrowfully, "103.3"
"What?" Weiss moved closer to her and looked over her shoulder to read the four numbers, "I thought he had a fever but that?"
"We should change his shirt so he doesn't catch a chill." She said. She reached forward and stroke his thinning hair, "Do you want to grab a fresh t-shirt?" She called over her shoulder and heard Weiss move to rummage through some of the luggage. She felt the tears threaten to overturn themselves onto her face. "Hey baby, it's me. Don't worry. I'm here. Everything's gonna be okay. I am not going to let you leave me. Not again." She started to tear up again but the more she tried to push the emotions down, the more they rose in her throat.
She continued to stroke his head and made soothing sounds, "I'm not going anyway. I'm here. I'm here. Shh."
Weiss listened to her tearful speech to her lover and obeyed silently. He walked to the first duffle bag he came across and dug through the piles of jeans and pants until he came upon a gray t-shirt. The cotton was smooth and fresh in his hands. He walked over to her and handed the t- shirt over, knowing that she was better off to change him. "Here."
She accepted the soft cotton and turned it over in her hands a few time. She took the soft cotton in her hand and started to shimmy the soaked one over his head. It was there, to her horror that something she never imagined was revealed.
A/N: So.what do you think? I've decided to put FORTY SEVEN on hold for a little while to concentrate on this one. Please, I take reviews seriously and try to make my work better with each chapter. So, please review! And just remember, there are going to be a few twists and turns that you won't expect. Remember, she STILL works for the CIA and with that, no life is ever easy.
Summary: He left her alone and jaded. And now, one phone will change her life forever. Romance S/V
A/N: Thank you for all of your kind reviews! I hope you won't be too disappointed with this chapter!
Now she understood. She took another deep breath and placed her hands down, leaved over the sink, composed herself once more, looked in the mirror and as her eyes met their reflection; there was a knock on her door.
She walked quickly towards the door and drew a deep inhale as she reached for the doorknob. The tears still racked her body slightly as her thoughts began to muddle around her in her mind. She watched with interest as she opened the door and saw that Weiss was standing there, with his head hug down. He was dressed casually in khakis and a polo shirt. "Hey." She greeted and motioned for him to come in. She forced her a smile over her white teeth. It was time for her to act. Big time.
His body remained immobile. "Are you ready to go?" He asked, as if unaware of her attempt of warmness from her tone. He refused to look at her and finally stood up straight, his hands into his pockets and looked away from her doorway. "Well?"
She was quickly taken back by his foreignness. "Yeah. Yeah sure, lemme grab my bag." She stammered from the second time that day. Her body turned back and reached to grab her little handbag and grabbed her black leather jacket resting on a nearby chair. She pulled it on and felt pain rush into her heart at the smell of the fresh leather. It always reminded her of him. She instantly thought of the night Taipei that he had worn that fateful night that she honestly new that she loved him. Back in the present, she was just about to go out the door and saw her cat sitting peacefully curled up. "Well Miss Shiva, sois gentile pour maman, s'il te plait et regarde la maison. Je t'adore." She kissed her cat affectionate on the head, stood up, and walked out the door, locking it tightly behind her.
"You talk French to your cat?" His voice in cold contrast to the warmness in her tone. He brought his eyes to meet her honey brown ones and she felt her face draw pale as the memories came flooding back.
She adjusted her bag on her shoulder and modified her body to get rid of the tremors that started to shake her body. Her lips pressed into a thin straight hair before she answered. "It was the last thing that Vaughn said to either one of us before her left. Be nice for mom please and watch the house. I love you." She recited mechanically as if it was the pledge of allegiance or the multiplication tables. She kept her eyes locked on the hallway stretching before and started to use the same foreign mannerisms that he had used with her. She started to think about what she was going to say to him and how she wouldn't go running back into his arms. How she wouldn't kiss his elegant lips or be held in his strong arms. She licked her lips in her nervousness as they reached down the hallway and into the outside world. The hallways were silent and eerily quiet. She kept her back straight and pushed her chin up as she tried so hard not to break. She watched Weiss stay a few paces in front of her and had no idea what he was thinking. He had never been that quiet in all the years that she knew him. It had been well over five years since she first entered that building with her red hair and the bleeding mouth.
Normally, she could read people and tell exactly what they were thinking and be dead on but this time, this it was different. Maybe her thoughts were so preoccupied that she didn't have the energy to do so but she couldn't figure him out. She was angry at him but she couldn't exactly tell why. But she followed Weiss into his government issued car and silently shut the door behind her without argument. Her arms quickly crossed over her body. She couldn't help the annoyance rise in her body as she contemplated how Weiss had kept such valuable information from her, "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" She asked at last as he turned the ignition and pulled out of the driveway at a frightening speed.
Weiss inhaled deeply and tightened his grip on the steering wheel as he pressed harder on the gas petal, "He begged me not to." He was pushing ten miles over the speed limit as he started down the straight road for a while. It would only be about a five minute ride. It was midday and there was absolutely no traffic, which was rather surprising for an LA street.
"And you actually listened to him?" She snapped, turning her attention to the window. "You knew how much I was following apart and you still kept that from me?" She let her hot air steam up the window as she fumed with anger.
"I had to, Sydney." His tone was beginning to match her irate one.
"You could have told me! I hate it when you patronize and coddle me! He used to do it all the time!" She shouted, letting her voice echo in the confined space. She felt her breath grew rapid over her lips and her blood start to boil in her veins.
"Sydney, listen to yourself." Weiss responded, dropping his voice. "Think about it. If you were in the same boat, would you have honestly told him? You know how protective he is over the people he loves. He thought he was protecting you. He's broken and dying right now, Syd." He didn't let her answer, "You better get yourself ready to see him. We're gonna be there in two minutes."
She pursed her lips in defeat and starred out the window. It was a horrible gray day. There was no way that this day could turn out well. She retreated back into her mind and felt her body jerk and pull against Weiss' razor sharp turns. "Jesus Weiss! Where did you get your license? Sears?" She braced herself against the door as he turned around to the left and pulled into the parking lot of the hotel, well over the speed limit.
"Central Intelligence Agency will give anyone a license nowadays." He smiled wryly and got out of his car. "C'mon, Syd. We gotta make sure he's still there." His manners changed entirely. He was back to his old self. His eyes scanned over the tire tracks he had left behind. The phrase "burning rubber" suddenly had knew meanings. He smirked slightly at his unbridled attempt to break the law.
Sydney quickly and quietly got out of the car and followed suit, scanning the narrow driveway outside the plastered white building. Her heels made a gentle noise against the harsh reality against her feet. The hotel looked so barren. It stood tall and stark against the graying sky. "What floor is his on?" She looked up and down the hotel, scanning it as if she would see her love waving to her from the balcony. Her mouth dropped open a bit as the disappointment set into her system.
"Ninth." Weiss jogged towards the revolving door and stepped inside the white and gold lobby complete with chandeliers and fresh roses everywhere. People were bustling about completely unaware of the two finest CIA agents in the world standing in the doorway. They stopped and scanned the large open lobby and discovered the elevators small hall. There was no one standing by the four doors, two of each side of the hall leading towards the master ballroom. They were gilded in gold paint with a silver tiled floor with walls covered in mirrors. Weiss leaned forward and pressed the white pearl UP button and stepped back to stand near Sydney, watching the numbers beep above the door. 18.17.16.15 and so on and so forth. Finally, what seemed like hours of anticipation, the doors slide open, revealing an empty elevator.
They filed silently inside and waited for it to arrive on the destined floor. Weiss leaned forward again and pressed the 9th floor button and again, they stood poised waiting for the elevator doors to ring open again. Stereotypical elevator music softly played beneath her thoughts that screamed loudly in brain. Sydney held her breath and clasped her bag tightly beneath her arm. She couldn't stop her heart from pounding so loudly. The elevator never moved more slowly in her life. She wanted to jump up and down and shake the jitters out of her system but she couldn't. She had to put everything in little white boxes in her head that were being stacked up on top of each other. But the stack was getting too high and one more would cause everything to spill.
Weiss finally broke the screams in her head with a meek little questions; "Are you okay, Syd?"
"What? Yeah, I'm fine." She replied, lying through her gritted teeth. The elevator dinged at the ninth floor. Weiss exited first and waited for her to follow. He stopped looking back and started to find Vaughn's room.
"It's room 947." Weiss said simply, walking towards the hallway that ran perpendicular to the elevator lobby and was greeted by a mirror with two signs, pointing in different directions. Vaughn's room was to the left. The man led the way while the younger agent followed at his heels, glancing at each room and read each number with false interest. She was secretly dreading reaching his room and was starting to wish she had never answered her phone. Much to her dismay, they reached room 947.
She hesitated and watched Weiss walk to the door and start to knock patiently. Another knock came with no answer. Another knock and no answer. Another. And another. "Mike?" Weiss finally boomed and banged on the door harder than before. He continued knocking for a few moments but there came no answer. "Michael?" He cried again. A series of pounds on the door followed again but still no answer. She felt fear rise like bile in her throat as she waited for the door to go pulling open. But it never did. Absolutely desperate and absolutely terrified with what could be lying on that floor, she started to look around, starved for answers.
Due to sheer luck, the maid was passing by, "Excuse me, miss?" Sydney walked down the hall a little bit and greeted the pretty woman with a smile.
"Yes, ma'am?" the skinny Latin woman asked, looking up from her cart. Her accent was strong. Almost as strong as her coffee colored eyes and her hazelnut hair.
She put on a false smile and started, "Mi nombre es Sydney Bristow. Trabajo con la agencia de inteligencia central para los Estados Unidos. " she reached into her coat pocket and revealed her identification, "éste es mi socio, agente Eric," Weiss revealed his badge, "Necesitamos entrar en este sitio. ¿Puede usted abrirlo para nosotros? " Sydney rambled in Spanish. (My name is Sydney Bristow. I work with the Central Intelligence Agency for the United States. This is my partner, Agent Eric Weiss. We need to enter this room. Can you open it for us?)
"Sí, falta. alegre ." The maid smiled at hearing her native language flowing over the woman's tongue. (Yes, ma'am. I will gladly.) She padded over to the door, took out her master key, and opened the door, "Allí usted va ." (There you go.) She turned, smiling once in each of their directions and carry on her way.
Sydney started to walk towards the open door but Weiss quickly stopped her. "Maybe you should wait outside. Just so I can prep him for you or..make sue that he's okay." Weiss walked into the open door and left Sydney out in the open. She watched his figure disappear into the dark room and waited to hear desperate cries and the sounds of heartache fill but the sounds never came. Instead, quiet coaxing.
Vaughn was lying on the bathroom floor still but now he was sure he was dying. This was destined to be his last day. In fact, he heard Sydney's voice utter his name and he was sure that Heaven was not far away. He reached up to the counter and found the sole bottle lying there. He took the orange tube in his hand, spilling its contents in his outstretched palm and found one round white pill. He placed it on the tip of his tongue and tasted its bittersweet taste. With the last remaining bit of salvia in his mouth, he forced the pill down his throat. It went down hard and he leaned against the hard ceramic wall and just waited for the sleeping pill to take over. All the while, he heard his door open..
He entered the room like a cop entering a crime scene. Each step was more painful than the last. He couldn't help but remember the first time Vaughn had checked into this hotel for his first round of treatment. Weiss had never seen Weiss cry so violently before. Nothing was working and everyday, he got worse and worse. Finally, he was admitted to the hospital and that was the day that he told Sydney that he was leaving. Weiss had been there every step of the way and even flew with him to New York, to Sloane Kettering for more aggressive treatments. Devlin and Kendall were more than well aware with Vaughn's situation and opened a job for him in a New York affiliated office. Both of them were sworn to secrecy. It was Vaughn's request. But now the cancer was back and more aggressive treatments were looming on the horizon. Weiss honestly didn't know if either one of them was strong enough. And now that Sydney knew..nothing good could come of this.
His eyes darted around the tiny room, walking past the bathroom, with its door securely shut, and into the heart of the room. There carpet was an ugly color forest green with gold and yellow comforters and drapes lined the depressing room. There were two twin beds, one ruffled from a restless night's sleep. Three duffle bags littered the floor and on the other bed, the one closer to the large window and balcony, there was an array of pill bottles. All five lamps were on and were shining a dull yellow light, "Mike? Are you here? Mike? Hey, Mikey?" He shouted in the room, as if the louder he spoke, the sooner he would appear.
Vaughn heard his name being called rapidly but felt too weak to respond. He felt the feverish feeling return to his body and felt the onset of chills and quakes reach the base of his spine. The voice kept ringing out. He knew the voice belonged to Eric Weiss, his best friend. He wished that he could jumped up and met him with an embracing sign but he couldn't. All he could do was mummer a reply, "I'm in here." He said in a hoarse whisper.
Finally, out of complete desperation, he started to check the three doors, two of them being closets and the third, the one to the right of the door, was the bathroom. There, huddled in a corner was the shell of a man dying by his own body. "Mike?" He approached the motionless figure, propped up against the side of the toilette. "Michael?"
His voice grew soft as he walked closer and closer. He knelt before his best friend, stepping over the sprawled limbs. "Hey, man." Weiss greeted and placed his hand on his wrist to check a pulse and to feel his temperature. He knew this drill way to well.
Vaughn forced his eyes open and now started to shake slightly, "Weiss." He had finally faded to the dying cancer patient, with a heavy heart and a revolting body. He had no color to his body and he felt like his was drowning in his own world. His eyes kept rolling back into his head as the high dose medicine flooded into his veins. His lips were pressed into a thinning straight line with less and less color with each growing breath.
"How's it going?" He managed to speak. He knew the answer from his friend but decided to ask it out of habit. His tone was soft and smooth and completely out of his normal character. But this was a desperate time for him. His best friend was dying and it felt like minutes, not days or weeks, counted. He just needed to make sure that each day was met with the same attention and passion as the last. Weiss refused to bury his friend any time soon.
"Had. Better. Days." He manage to spit out.
"Let's get you into bed, okay?" With the most sympathy in his heart, Weiss hoisted his dear friend into his arms and carried the thinning body into the closer, ruffled bed. He laid him there, stepping back to watch his peaceful somber face. Not bothering to cover him with the heavy standard hotel blankets, he sat beside him for a moment, "Mike? Are you with me?"
Vaughn groaned slightly and couldn't bring himself to open his eyes, "I'm so tired."
"Yeah, I know. Did you take anything?"
He sighed and managed to shake his head against the soft worn pillow, "Yeah."
Weiss rolled his eyes out of frustration. He didn't know exactly why he was frustrated but he just was. Maybe he was emotionally exhausted from all of this, "Sleeping pills?"
Vaughn's body was getting weaker by the second. So much so that he let his eyes shut and answer through darkness, "The only thing that helps with the-the side-the side-effects." He managed to choke out.
"I need to tell you something, Mike. Sydney's outside." He hushed his voice.
His eyes were forced to flutter open, "Sydney? She's here? You brought her?"
"Yeah, I did. I'll bring her in a minute."
"She can't see me this way."
"Suck it up."
Vaughn wanted to argue back but the pills had taken such a tough time against his system that it forced them to shut down. He was out cold..almost dead to the world. His eyes slammed shut and an induced sleep fell over him quickly and blocked out the rest of the world.
Why did good things happen to good people? Weiss stood up and watched his sleeping friend for a few more moments, making sure he was okay. Was he ever going to be okay again? Ignoring the impending response from his own mind, he stepped back out in the hallway to find Sydney pacing.
"How is he?" She pleaded desperately, not bothering to falter in her pace.
"He's sleeping." He answered like a doctor informing a mother of her son's surgery and condition. He stepped back into the room and motioned for her to follow. She did so, taking small timid steps and was overpowered by the room smelling of stale air. She struggled to breath as she cleared the little hallway and saw her love lying on the bed, shaking from fever and from the damp t-shirt he wore that was doused in sweat and from the wet clothes he used to try to cool his body. She wanted to cry out and collapse down to the ground and shake with absolute terror and pain. But instead, her mind snapped into business mode.
She walked towards him in a very professional stride and stood over him, finally letting her feelings show. She placed her hand on his forehead, "Does he have a thermometer? I think he has a fever." She caressed the lines of his face and let her fingers trace along his jaw line. Her form finally sat down near his rib cage and watched him with the interest of a small child.
Weiss nodded silently and turned towards the three bags and started to empty the first duffle bag onto the ugly carpeted floor and quickly found the sought after item, "Here."
She reached behind her, not bothering to turn around, and accepted the plastic tool and placed it in his ear and clicked the little button to get the degree of his body. Removing it from his sleeping form, she looked the digital reading sorrowfully, "103.3"
"What?" Weiss moved closer to her and looked over her shoulder to read the four numbers, "I thought he had a fever but that?"
"We should change his shirt so he doesn't catch a chill." She said. She reached forward and stroke his thinning hair, "Do you want to grab a fresh t-shirt?" She called over her shoulder and heard Weiss move to rummage through some of the luggage. She felt the tears threaten to overturn themselves onto her face. "Hey baby, it's me. Don't worry. I'm here. Everything's gonna be okay. I am not going to let you leave me. Not again." She started to tear up again but the more she tried to push the emotions down, the more they rose in her throat.
She continued to stroke his head and made soothing sounds, "I'm not going anyway. I'm here. I'm here. Shh."
Weiss listened to her tearful speech to her lover and obeyed silently. He walked to the first duffle bag he came across and dug through the piles of jeans and pants until he came upon a gray t-shirt. The cotton was smooth and fresh in his hands. He walked over to her and handed the t- shirt over, knowing that she was better off to change him. "Here."
She accepted the soft cotton and turned it over in her hands a few time. She took the soft cotton in her hand and started to shimmy the soaked one over his head. It was there, to her horror that something she never imagined was revealed.
A/N: So.what do you think? I've decided to put FORTY SEVEN on hold for a little while to concentrate on this one. Please, I take reviews seriously and try to make my work better with each chapter. So, please review! And just remember, there are going to be a few twists and turns that you won't expect. Remember, she STILL works for the CIA and with that, no life is ever easy.