here's the next chapter---a little more open to some of the mysteries that has been clogged up since the beginning. well, a little more, not all the way yet ^_~ i'd like to thank all those people who are reading my fic and reviewing them---it's nice to hear that people are enjoying it. well, enjoy and don't forget to read and review. ^_^
Chapter Six
"This is vital information, uh, sir," Weiss quivered as the powerful figure of Jack Bristow loomed over him, watching the computer screen intently. He was honest when he told Nads that he feared Jack Bristow. He meant every word of it; the man was a walking contradiction. He criticized everything, particularly Vaughn's past actions and decisions. It was no secret that this man despised Vaughn's guts. "My guess is that Sloane has no idea what is really going on in the higher-ups."
"I see."
"Um…sir?"
Bristow rolled his eyes. "Yes, Agent Weiss?"
"What are you going to do?"
For the first time, Bristow looked uncertain. Score one for the loser's team---consisting of…well, for the moment, me, Weiss jeered silently as he watched the senior officer decide on what to do. "We're going to have to hold this information back for now," he told him. "At least until I get into SD-6 headquarters again and check out the status there. I'm due there today at eight anyways, so I might as well get an early start. Is Vaughn and my daughter notified by this?"
"Um…they will be."
"What are you waiting for?"
"Morning…sir."
Bristow narrowed his eyes at Weiss, sizing him up. Weiss suddenly felt small and intimidated against this man. His fear of Jack Bristow tripled and quadrupled over and over again, making him feel like a morsel of food, ready to be eaten. God, he wished that Vaughn or Nads were here as he squirmed inwardly.
The senior double agent bristled and stood up straight. "Let me know of any developments." With a last wary glance at Weiss, he turned around and left the computer room grouchily. Weiss loosed up his collar and his tie, wiping the sweat from his forehead. At last, the sudden tension was over, at least for the time being.
This was going to be a very long day.
Vaughn and Sydney looked up towards the door. At the doorway stood a figure clad in black pants, a gray-hooded sweatshirt topped by a leather jacket. The newcomer's face was hidden under the hood. Underneath the jacket, Sydney could see a gun tucked in her belt. Sydney shivered at the sight of the gun; was this yet another assassin on her tail?
God, she hoped not.
She turned to Vaughn to see his reaction. He looked more embarrassed than afraid.
The newcomer shut the door and then started walking towards the chair where the clothes were piled up. "Hey Uncle," the newcomer greeted, clearly a female. The voice was remarkably familiar. Then the newcomer stopped dead in her tracks and supposedly glared at the sight on the couch. "Okay, Unc, what is she doing here?"
"Unc?" Sydney inquired to Vaughn.
Vaughn blushed dark red under the low lights. "Nads, I can explain…"
"No, no, just don't, okay?" she told him as she peeled off her leather jacket. "We are going to have a talk about this later, all right? About protocol and all. Gosh, how many times have I been hearing about protocol this past week?" she asked herself as she made her way to the kitchen area of the house, pulling off her gray sweater. Sydney watched carefully as it revealed a young lady with dark hair and large eyes that contrasted with her pale skin. She was also an oriental. Sydney was further surprised to see that the girl was wearing a bulletproof jacket underneath.
"That's Nads?" Sydney whispered.
"Yes…"
"Why does she call you Unc?"
Nads, in the meantime, was examining the contents of the coffee maker. She frowned in disgust and dumped the contents into the sink. "Uncle, do you even bother making new coffee? This stuff's a week old!" she croaked, then focused her attention to Sydney. "I call Vaughn over there Unc because…well, he's my uncle. Not by blood, but you supposedly get the impression." She shrugged and turned back to the empty coffee pot.
Vaughn released his hold from Sydney, much to her protest. He got up and went over the Nads. He examined her features under the bright light of the kitchen. "God, Nads, what happened to you?" he asked, pointing to her a spot near her brow. "You've got a bruise forming there."
"It's nothing," she said with a dismissive wave.
"It looks like something, Nads."
"I said it's nothing," she told him with a stubborn glare. She opened the fridge. "Great, and there's no more ice as well," she groaned, looking at her uncle again. She noticed that he was still carrying the stainless steel that held the ice pack. She grabbed the bowl from his hands before he could protest and patted the sack just above her brow. "I'll take that," she told him smugly. The sack fell from her forehead and onto the bowl. "God, I'm going to have to tape this on my face at this rate."
"Nads…"
"If you're worried whether I'd tell Devlin, don't worry," she told him quickly, moving towards the chair of clothes. Sydney sat silently on the couch, watching the entire conversation. "Besides, I never met him before, so there's no trouble, right?" She patted her wound carefully with the pack before putting it down and searching through the clothes. "Sorry about this, Agent---Miss Bristow. I'm usually not a mess…unlike some people…"
"Hey!" Vaughn cried out indignantly.
Nads smiled cryptically at Sydney. "See what I mean?"
Vaughn folded his arms across his chest and scowled at Nads. Sydney couldn't help but think that he looked just like a father would. She also noticed the sudden shift in his eyes. When she kissed him, she saw a certain fire, a certain passion and a certain gentleness she never knew a guy could possess. Now he held a strange gaze that she had never seen him use before; he looked like a father worried about his own child.
Vaughn, a father figure?
It was possible, she thought.
"Nads, where have you been?" he told her sternly, seriously. He sounded worried and deeply concerned. Even more concerned than when he was talking to her. Sydney took a step back to allow the uncle and his niece to talk. "The bruise…did you get into a brawl or something? Aren't you supposed to be in the lookout?"
"I was," she said grittily, "until some people decided to disappear from their homes." At that moment, both Sydney and Vaughn sulked back and glanced at each other. Nads sighed. "Unc, didn't I tell you that the information can wait until morning? No, instead, you guys sneak off with the hit man behind you guys!"
"How do you know about this?" Vaughn asked darkly.
Nads sighed and rolled her eyes. "I am the all-knowing, all-seeing informant, remember?" she cried. "Weiss called me in the early hours saying that he was looking for you. He found something on the SD-6 server that he wanted you to look at but no one was answering his or her cell phone. Sounds familiar? So then he calls me and starts bugging me about it so I went after you guys."
"We made it out of the warehouse with the hit man unconscious," Vaughn told her.
"Unconscious with the information that Sydney Bristow here is meeting up with some strange guy for some odd reason," Nads pointed out finely as she rubbed her eyes wearily. "Trust me, I don't think this hit man is thinking that she's having a midnight fling with someone in some abandoned warehouse. Gosh, I wish we had some coffee right now. Anyways, that is a security leak, Unc, a very precarious one, too. You should've reviewed your situation before you plunged yourself into it."
"Nads, I don't need to be---"
"Lectured? Too bad, Vaughn, it's either me or Devlin!" Nads shot back, a sudden snap of anger and stubbornness Sydney was taken aback by the sudden portrayal of emotion. Was this the same girl who saved her the first time in the alley and calmly told her to watch herself? Both Vaughn and Nads was fuming steam at each other, letting out all the bottled frustrations of the job.
At the same time, Nads cell went off playing "My Way or the Highway" again. Nads turned away from Vaughn and Sydney to answer the cell phone. Brushing her hair back, she said, "Nads."
Vaughn sighed, closing his eyes shut and rubbing off his frustration. He sighed; Nads was right, as always. It was odd…he had been in the CIA for four years and Nads had only been sticking around for a year or so and already she was far more careful that he was. Was he losing touch already? Or was he putting his personal feelings first before safety? Nads had come about to being his counsel and guide in all of this yet again.
Sydney watched Vaughn ponder to himself. He looks so harassed, she thought. And this is my fault. This is all my fault. The hit man and being in SD-6…all because I wanted to be something bigger than myself. And here Vaughn is, taking in the pain and burden that I should be carrying myself. She sighed. Maybe she was his burden.
Sydney placed a hand on Vaughn's. He looked up, startled and touched by the gesture.
"I'm sorry, Vau---Michael," she whispered. "For all this."
This caught his attention. "Don't be, Sydney, don't be," he told her gently.
She shook her head. "I know I'm such a burden…"
"No, no, never," he insisted with a warbly smile.
At the same time, Nads was listening to the phone call. It was Weiss from the office explaining his ordeal with Mr. Bristow and the computer data. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Weiss, but we were unavailable at that moment," she told him as she pulled on a white blouse over her bulletproof vest. "It couldn't have been that bad."
"Yeah, right! He was like, ready to kick my ass all the way to Antarctica!"
She sighed, buttoning her shirt. "Well, I can't be the judge of that since I never met Mr. Bristow before," she told him. This caught the interest of both Sydney and Vaughn. "Look, don't freak. It was the spur of the moment. It was that, and the fact that you roused us all up before dawn." She flipped her hair back and stood up properly. "I'm coming by to see this for myself---and Vaughn's coming with me. It's time he gets to take a look at this." She glared at her uncle.
"Okay, by the way, Devlin is calling a meeting at ten."
"Who informed him of this?" Nads demanded.
"Jack Bristow did."
She sighed as she adjusted her tie on her collar. "I guess it's time to meet my boss," she told him wearily. "We'll be there before seven. You---no freaking out, do you hear me? Go get some breakfast---oh! And make sure that there's some coffee and a bottle of a water when we get there."
"Anything for Xena."
"Don't call me that. It better be there or someone will pay." She then hung up and turned to Vaughn and Sydney. "Unc, we better get on a go. This information's been postponed for far too many hours," she told him. "Hurry up and get dressed. Miss Bristow, Agent Weiss also told me to tell you that you're free to return back to SD-6. Your role for now is to help your father to pull out possible suspects on who's on the higher alliances."
Sydney nodded. "Okay."
"Who ordered this?" Vaughn asked from his bedroom.
"Devlin did. Hurry up," Nads told him. She returned her gaze to Sydney. "You need a ride?"
"Oh, no, I think that's too much trouble," she told her with a small laugh. "I wouldn't want to trouble you guys with a car ride. I'll just call a taxi back to my place and get ready to go to work. It wouldn't take long, I'm sure. You guys can go to HQ." She paused.
Nads smiled. "Miss Bristow, just to let you know, you're not a burden to Vaughn."
Sydney's brows went up. "Oh?"
"Yeah," she told her, "in fact, you're probably the greatest thing that's happened to him." She opened the door outside. She grabbed the keys and turned back to Sydney. "It's nice to meet you…I mean, not in alleyway or anything…just watch yourself. I'll be looking up on you from time to time."
Sydney did a curt nod and Nads left the room.
"Has Folken returned yet?"
"No, sir."
"What the hell happened to him?"
"I---I don't know, sir."
Silence.
"Well, don't just stand there---FIND HIM!!!!"
Will was driving up some side street, his ears on the morning news. His windows were pulled down for the fumes of coffee and his dinner was suffocating. The street was fairly quiet and the sun was just beginning to rise from the east. He had stayed up all night making an article for his boss and winded up searching and trying to look up the file of this "Vaughn" character. The strange thing was, his file---social, health of otherwise---was nowhere to be found. Credit Dauphine had no record of a Michael Vaughn on their employees list and when he tried searching the social files and census files, his file happened to be locked up.
This guy was trouble, and Will could sense it with his reporter eye.
He suddenly passed by a house. It was just like every one, only there was one thing peculiar. Well, two things. There was a girl out at the front of the house, dressed up like a businesswoman, ready to do something or leave. The second thing was that a familiar guy was just exiting his house with a woman behind him---
Sydney! And the guy---Vaughn!
Will pulled over just a couple of houses behind and got out of the car. Yes! He found the home of that mysterious guy he met yesterday. What was Sydney doing with this guy, anyways? He wondered as he hid behind a bush of some prickly leaves and watched the transaction carefully. He wished he had his recorder with him, or a notepad.
He could barely make out what they were saying.
"…be careful…"
"…you when I get home…"
"…dangerous…"
"…yourself…"
He then watched as Sydney leaned over and planted a kiss onto Vaughn. Will almost fell onto the prickly bush and died right there and then. God, she was kissing that bastard! Sydney was kissing that dangerous and mysterious man! How could she---He felt his hopes drop just like the time when Sydney told him that Danny proposed to her.
Will knew that Sydney was trying to move on with her life and the thoughts of being with her…the prospect that she could be with him…resurfaced once again. But she had become different for the past months. She became distant and she was constantly on the go. She always left for meetings at the strangest hours and she was rarely with them. Now he could see part of the reason; she was with someone else now.
She had moved on…but not with him.
"Um, excuse me," came a voice from behind, "what are you doing behind that bush?"
He turned around to see the girl that was standing in the front of the house. How did she move so fast? He wondered. She was not very tall but she was certainly fit and had a face to match her fit. She appeared to be eighteen, nineteen with dark hair, big eyes and pale skin. Her eyes were particularly remarkable; they held a certain strength and a certain coolness to them.
It was fascinating.
"Uh…my book flew out from my car when a sudden wind hit. It fell here," he lied.
Her facial expression did not change; how did she do that? "Um, just to let you know," she said mildly, "that bush is like a death trap. A squirrel once crawled under there to escape the neighbour's wrath and let's just say it never saw the light of day again. A tennis ball went in there and when we found it, it was all tangled up and stuff. So my advice is to you is don't try looking for it. It's gone." She shrugged casually, like it was nothing. "You can get up now."
He got up slowly. The girl had so much control for someone that young; he could see it in her eyes. She gave away no emotion. As a reporter, Will learned to read the expressions of one not by the way they talked but by their actions and most of all, their eyes. The way the blinked indicated whether the speaker was lying and their movements and actions would shadow it. This girl's eyes were impressive and her movements were controlled, almost graceful.
What was up with that?
"I guess I can," Will said with a small laugh as he wiped his palms on his tan pants.
The girl nodded slowly. "Just a tip," she told him, "don't ever leave a book around when driving. The weather's pretty crazy here right now and things just start flying…if you know what I mean." She winked at Will.
Will felt his cheeks go hot to the bone.
"Nads! Where did you run off to know?" It was that Vaughn character.
She started walking out from behind the bushes calmly and coolly, although Will could see that her brow delicately was put down in an annoyed fashion. "I'm right here, Uncle, chill out for a dear nanosecond, will you?" she told him. "I swear, if you keep worrying about Miss Bristow or me like this, you're going to suffer a nervous breakdown before you're forty."
Will frowned. Why would someone like Vaughn be worried about Sydney?
"Who were you talking behind there?" Vaughn asked. "Don't tell me you've gone delusional on me as well---"
"Number One, I am not delusional, I'm simply an idealist," she retorted with a little huff. "And Number Two, I caught this guy spying behind the fern bush." To prove her point, she grabbed a fistful of Will's tan shirt and dragged him from behind the bush and out to the open. His glasses nearly fell from his face as he was released from her grip. But the damage was already done; he was out in the open.
Vaughn's brows were up in curiosity and suspicion.
Sydney's jaw dropped in surprise. "W-Will?"
Now it was the girl's turn to raise her brow delicately. "You know this guy?"
"He's my friend, a reporter."
Now the girl turned the raised brow to Will. "Really?" she said melodramatically. "Well, in this case, let me get rid of him. Trust me, it would be my pleasure." She then gave a cryptic smile towards Will and flexed her fingers to prove her point.
Will bit his lower lip. Somehow, he had a feeling that she wasn't bluffing.
"No, no, no," Vaughn intervened, pushing the girl away from Will. He gave a short, nervous laugh. "You know, I think we'd best be going now Sydney…you know, work and all. Maybe Will can take you a ride back to your place…we're running late now. Anyways, I'll talk to you later…um, nice to see you again…Will." He gave a curt nod before walking off to a car with the young girl before him.
Will frowned as he watched them go. What was up with that? He then turned to Sydney. He couldn't help feeling like a wounded puppy. He got a kiss from her months ago and then she leaves it alone all together. What was up with that? Before he could muster up the courage to ask her about the kiss and rest the case altogether, he finds her kissing that guy that doesn't even exist on file.
There was something going on and he could feel it.
He cleared his throat abruptly. "Um…so, you need a ride, huh?"
Chapter Six
"This is vital information, uh, sir," Weiss quivered as the powerful figure of Jack Bristow loomed over him, watching the computer screen intently. He was honest when he told Nads that he feared Jack Bristow. He meant every word of it; the man was a walking contradiction. He criticized everything, particularly Vaughn's past actions and decisions. It was no secret that this man despised Vaughn's guts. "My guess is that Sloane has no idea what is really going on in the higher-ups."
"I see."
"Um…sir?"
Bristow rolled his eyes. "Yes, Agent Weiss?"
"What are you going to do?"
For the first time, Bristow looked uncertain. Score one for the loser's team---consisting of…well, for the moment, me, Weiss jeered silently as he watched the senior officer decide on what to do. "We're going to have to hold this information back for now," he told him. "At least until I get into SD-6 headquarters again and check out the status there. I'm due there today at eight anyways, so I might as well get an early start. Is Vaughn and my daughter notified by this?"
"Um…they will be."
"What are you waiting for?"
"Morning…sir."
Bristow narrowed his eyes at Weiss, sizing him up. Weiss suddenly felt small and intimidated against this man. His fear of Jack Bristow tripled and quadrupled over and over again, making him feel like a morsel of food, ready to be eaten. God, he wished that Vaughn or Nads were here as he squirmed inwardly.
The senior double agent bristled and stood up straight. "Let me know of any developments." With a last wary glance at Weiss, he turned around and left the computer room grouchily. Weiss loosed up his collar and his tie, wiping the sweat from his forehead. At last, the sudden tension was over, at least for the time being.
This was going to be a very long day.
Vaughn and Sydney looked up towards the door. At the doorway stood a figure clad in black pants, a gray-hooded sweatshirt topped by a leather jacket. The newcomer's face was hidden under the hood. Underneath the jacket, Sydney could see a gun tucked in her belt. Sydney shivered at the sight of the gun; was this yet another assassin on her tail?
God, she hoped not.
She turned to Vaughn to see his reaction. He looked more embarrassed than afraid.
The newcomer shut the door and then started walking towards the chair where the clothes were piled up. "Hey Uncle," the newcomer greeted, clearly a female. The voice was remarkably familiar. Then the newcomer stopped dead in her tracks and supposedly glared at the sight on the couch. "Okay, Unc, what is she doing here?"
"Unc?" Sydney inquired to Vaughn.
Vaughn blushed dark red under the low lights. "Nads, I can explain…"
"No, no, just don't, okay?" she told him as she peeled off her leather jacket. "We are going to have a talk about this later, all right? About protocol and all. Gosh, how many times have I been hearing about protocol this past week?" she asked herself as she made her way to the kitchen area of the house, pulling off her gray sweater. Sydney watched carefully as it revealed a young lady with dark hair and large eyes that contrasted with her pale skin. She was also an oriental. Sydney was further surprised to see that the girl was wearing a bulletproof jacket underneath.
"That's Nads?" Sydney whispered.
"Yes…"
"Why does she call you Unc?"
Nads, in the meantime, was examining the contents of the coffee maker. She frowned in disgust and dumped the contents into the sink. "Uncle, do you even bother making new coffee? This stuff's a week old!" she croaked, then focused her attention to Sydney. "I call Vaughn over there Unc because…well, he's my uncle. Not by blood, but you supposedly get the impression." She shrugged and turned back to the empty coffee pot.
Vaughn released his hold from Sydney, much to her protest. He got up and went over the Nads. He examined her features under the bright light of the kitchen. "God, Nads, what happened to you?" he asked, pointing to her a spot near her brow. "You've got a bruise forming there."
"It's nothing," she said with a dismissive wave.
"It looks like something, Nads."
"I said it's nothing," she told him with a stubborn glare. She opened the fridge. "Great, and there's no more ice as well," she groaned, looking at her uncle again. She noticed that he was still carrying the stainless steel that held the ice pack. She grabbed the bowl from his hands before he could protest and patted the sack just above her brow. "I'll take that," she told him smugly. The sack fell from her forehead and onto the bowl. "God, I'm going to have to tape this on my face at this rate."
"Nads…"
"If you're worried whether I'd tell Devlin, don't worry," she told him quickly, moving towards the chair of clothes. Sydney sat silently on the couch, watching the entire conversation. "Besides, I never met him before, so there's no trouble, right?" She patted her wound carefully with the pack before putting it down and searching through the clothes. "Sorry about this, Agent---Miss Bristow. I'm usually not a mess…unlike some people…"
"Hey!" Vaughn cried out indignantly.
Nads smiled cryptically at Sydney. "See what I mean?"
Vaughn folded his arms across his chest and scowled at Nads. Sydney couldn't help but think that he looked just like a father would. She also noticed the sudden shift in his eyes. When she kissed him, she saw a certain fire, a certain passion and a certain gentleness she never knew a guy could possess. Now he held a strange gaze that she had never seen him use before; he looked like a father worried about his own child.
Vaughn, a father figure?
It was possible, she thought.
"Nads, where have you been?" he told her sternly, seriously. He sounded worried and deeply concerned. Even more concerned than when he was talking to her. Sydney took a step back to allow the uncle and his niece to talk. "The bruise…did you get into a brawl or something? Aren't you supposed to be in the lookout?"
"I was," she said grittily, "until some people decided to disappear from their homes." At that moment, both Sydney and Vaughn sulked back and glanced at each other. Nads sighed. "Unc, didn't I tell you that the information can wait until morning? No, instead, you guys sneak off with the hit man behind you guys!"
"How do you know about this?" Vaughn asked darkly.
Nads sighed and rolled her eyes. "I am the all-knowing, all-seeing informant, remember?" she cried. "Weiss called me in the early hours saying that he was looking for you. He found something on the SD-6 server that he wanted you to look at but no one was answering his or her cell phone. Sounds familiar? So then he calls me and starts bugging me about it so I went after you guys."
"We made it out of the warehouse with the hit man unconscious," Vaughn told her.
"Unconscious with the information that Sydney Bristow here is meeting up with some strange guy for some odd reason," Nads pointed out finely as she rubbed her eyes wearily. "Trust me, I don't think this hit man is thinking that she's having a midnight fling with someone in some abandoned warehouse. Gosh, I wish we had some coffee right now. Anyways, that is a security leak, Unc, a very precarious one, too. You should've reviewed your situation before you plunged yourself into it."
"Nads, I don't need to be---"
"Lectured? Too bad, Vaughn, it's either me or Devlin!" Nads shot back, a sudden snap of anger and stubbornness Sydney was taken aback by the sudden portrayal of emotion. Was this the same girl who saved her the first time in the alley and calmly told her to watch herself? Both Vaughn and Nads was fuming steam at each other, letting out all the bottled frustrations of the job.
At the same time, Nads cell went off playing "My Way or the Highway" again. Nads turned away from Vaughn and Sydney to answer the cell phone. Brushing her hair back, she said, "Nads."
Vaughn sighed, closing his eyes shut and rubbing off his frustration. He sighed; Nads was right, as always. It was odd…he had been in the CIA for four years and Nads had only been sticking around for a year or so and already she was far more careful that he was. Was he losing touch already? Or was he putting his personal feelings first before safety? Nads had come about to being his counsel and guide in all of this yet again.
Sydney watched Vaughn ponder to himself. He looks so harassed, she thought. And this is my fault. This is all my fault. The hit man and being in SD-6…all because I wanted to be something bigger than myself. And here Vaughn is, taking in the pain and burden that I should be carrying myself. She sighed. Maybe she was his burden.
Sydney placed a hand on Vaughn's. He looked up, startled and touched by the gesture.
"I'm sorry, Vau---Michael," she whispered. "For all this."
This caught his attention. "Don't be, Sydney, don't be," he told her gently.
She shook her head. "I know I'm such a burden…"
"No, no, never," he insisted with a warbly smile.
At the same time, Nads was listening to the phone call. It was Weiss from the office explaining his ordeal with Mr. Bristow and the computer data. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Weiss, but we were unavailable at that moment," she told him as she pulled on a white blouse over her bulletproof vest. "It couldn't have been that bad."
"Yeah, right! He was like, ready to kick my ass all the way to Antarctica!"
She sighed, buttoning her shirt. "Well, I can't be the judge of that since I never met Mr. Bristow before," she told him. This caught the interest of both Sydney and Vaughn. "Look, don't freak. It was the spur of the moment. It was that, and the fact that you roused us all up before dawn." She flipped her hair back and stood up properly. "I'm coming by to see this for myself---and Vaughn's coming with me. It's time he gets to take a look at this." She glared at her uncle.
"Okay, by the way, Devlin is calling a meeting at ten."
"Who informed him of this?" Nads demanded.
"Jack Bristow did."
She sighed as she adjusted her tie on her collar. "I guess it's time to meet my boss," she told him wearily. "We'll be there before seven. You---no freaking out, do you hear me? Go get some breakfast---oh! And make sure that there's some coffee and a bottle of a water when we get there."
"Anything for Xena."
"Don't call me that. It better be there or someone will pay." She then hung up and turned to Vaughn and Sydney. "Unc, we better get on a go. This information's been postponed for far too many hours," she told him. "Hurry up and get dressed. Miss Bristow, Agent Weiss also told me to tell you that you're free to return back to SD-6. Your role for now is to help your father to pull out possible suspects on who's on the higher alliances."
Sydney nodded. "Okay."
"Who ordered this?" Vaughn asked from his bedroom.
"Devlin did. Hurry up," Nads told him. She returned her gaze to Sydney. "You need a ride?"
"Oh, no, I think that's too much trouble," she told her with a small laugh. "I wouldn't want to trouble you guys with a car ride. I'll just call a taxi back to my place and get ready to go to work. It wouldn't take long, I'm sure. You guys can go to HQ." She paused.
Nads smiled. "Miss Bristow, just to let you know, you're not a burden to Vaughn."
Sydney's brows went up. "Oh?"
"Yeah," she told her, "in fact, you're probably the greatest thing that's happened to him." She opened the door outside. She grabbed the keys and turned back to Sydney. "It's nice to meet you…I mean, not in alleyway or anything…just watch yourself. I'll be looking up on you from time to time."
Sydney did a curt nod and Nads left the room.
"Has Folken returned yet?"
"No, sir."
"What the hell happened to him?"
"I---I don't know, sir."
Silence.
"Well, don't just stand there---FIND HIM!!!!"
Will was driving up some side street, his ears on the morning news. His windows were pulled down for the fumes of coffee and his dinner was suffocating. The street was fairly quiet and the sun was just beginning to rise from the east. He had stayed up all night making an article for his boss and winded up searching and trying to look up the file of this "Vaughn" character. The strange thing was, his file---social, health of otherwise---was nowhere to be found. Credit Dauphine had no record of a Michael Vaughn on their employees list and when he tried searching the social files and census files, his file happened to be locked up.
This guy was trouble, and Will could sense it with his reporter eye.
He suddenly passed by a house. It was just like every one, only there was one thing peculiar. Well, two things. There was a girl out at the front of the house, dressed up like a businesswoman, ready to do something or leave. The second thing was that a familiar guy was just exiting his house with a woman behind him---
Sydney! And the guy---Vaughn!
Will pulled over just a couple of houses behind and got out of the car. Yes! He found the home of that mysterious guy he met yesterday. What was Sydney doing with this guy, anyways? He wondered as he hid behind a bush of some prickly leaves and watched the transaction carefully. He wished he had his recorder with him, or a notepad.
He could barely make out what they were saying.
"…be careful…"
"…you when I get home…"
"…dangerous…"
"…yourself…"
He then watched as Sydney leaned over and planted a kiss onto Vaughn. Will almost fell onto the prickly bush and died right there and then. God, she was kissing that bastard! Sydney was kissing that dangerous and mysterious man! How could she---He felt his hopes drop just like the time when Sydney told him that Danny proposed to her.
Will knew that Sydney was trying to move on with her life and the thoughts of being with her…the prospect that she could be with him…resurfaced once again. But she had become different for the past months. She became distant and she was constantly on the go. She always left for meetings at the strangest hours and she was rarely with them. Now he could see part of the reason; she was with someone else now.
She had moved on…but not with him.
"Um, excuse me," came a voice from behind, "what are you doing behind that bush?"
He turned around to see the girl that was standing in the front of the house. How did she move so fast? He wondered. She was not very tall but she was certainly fit and had a face to match her fit. She appeared to be eighteen, nineteen with dark hair, big eyes and pale skin. Her eyes were particularly remarkable; they held a certain strength and a certain coolness to them.
It was fascinating.
"Uh…my book flew out from my car when a sudden wind hit. It fell here," he lied.
Her facial expression did not change; how did she do that? "Um, just to let you know," she said mildly, "that bush is like a death trap. A squirrel once crawled under there to escape the neighbour's wrath and let's just say it never saw the light of day again. A tennis ball went in there and when we found it, it was all tangled up and stuff. So my advice is to you is don't try looking for it. It's gone." She shrugged casually, like it was nothing. "You can get up now."
He got up slowly. The girl had so much control for someone that young; he could see it in her eyes. She gave away no emotion. As a reporter, Will learned to read the expressions of one not by the way they talked but by their actions and most of all, their eyes. The way the blinked indicated whether the speaker was lying and their movements and actions would shadow it. This girl's eyes were impressive and her movements were controlled, almost graceful.
What was up with that?
"I guess I can," Will said with a small laugh as he wiped his palms on his tan pants.
The girl nodded slowly. "Just a tip," she told him, "don't ever leave a book around when driving. The weather's pretty crazy here right now and things just start flying…if you know what I mean." She winked at Will.
Will felt his cheeks go hot to the bone.
"Nads! Where did you run off to know?" It was that Vaughn character.
She started walking out from behind the bushes calmly and coolly, although Will could see that her brow delicately was put down in an annoyed fashion. "I'm right here, Uncle, chill out for a dear nanosecond, will you?" she told him. "I swear, if you keep worrying about Miss Bristow or me like this, you're going to suffer a nervous breakdown before you're forty."
Will frowned. Why would someone like Vaughn be worried about Sydney?
"Who were you talking behind there?" Vaughn asked. "Don't tell me you've gone delusional on me as well---"
"Number One, I am not delusional, I'm simply an idealist," she retorted with a little huff. "And Number Two, I caught this guy spying behind the fern bush." To prove her point, she grabbed a fistful of Will's tan shirt and dragged him from behind the bush and out to the open. His glasses nearly fell from his face as he was released from her grip. But the damage was already done; he was out in the open.
Vaughn's brows were up in curiosity and suspicion.
Sydney's jaw dropped in surprise. "W-Will?"
Now it was the girl's turn to raise her brow delicately. "You know this guy?"
"He's my friend, a reporter."
Now the girl turned the raised brow to Will. "Really?" she said melodramatically. "Well, in this case, let me get rid of him. Trust me, it would be my pleasure." She then gave a cryptic smile towards Will and flexed her fingers to prove her point.
Will bit his lower lip. Somehow, he had a feeling that she wasn't bluffing.
"No, no, no," Vaughn intervened, pushing the girl away from Will. He gave a short, nervous laugh. "You know, I think we'd best be going now Sydney…you know, work and all. Maybe Will can take you a ride back to your place…we're running late now. Anyways, I'll talk to you later…um, nice to see you again…Will." He gave a curt nod before walking off to a car with the young girl before him.
Will frowned as he watched them go. What was up with that? He then turned to Sydney. He couldn't help feeling like a wounded puppy. He got a kiss from her months ago and then she leaves it alone all together. What was up with that? Before he could muster up the courage to ask her about the kiss and rest the case altogether, he finds her kissing that guy that doesn't even exist on file.
There was something going on and he could feel it.
He cleared his throat abruptly. "Um…so, you need a ride, huh?"