Sydney felt her heart pounding in her chest like a bass drum when she heard Vaughn's voice, but her gaze didn't waver as she watched Anna visibly stiffen and she was downright flabbergasted when the hand holding the gun trembled slightly.

"Get in the vault." Anna suddenly grabbed her arm and thrust her through the open doorway. She pushed Sydney in ahead of her and then closed the door behind them.

Michael Vaughn crept as quietly as his black dress shoes would allow him along the uncarpeted floorboards. He was probably undertaking a fool's errand in going after Anna, but his resolve was steadfast. Once he saw that Sydney was notably absent from the exhibition hall, he knew that she had had to break into the vault in order to get the brooch. Anna no doubt realized this as well and that was when she excused herself, pleading a trip to the ladies room. Vaughn knew that he had to buy some time for Sydney, so he took off after Anna, hoping to catch up and waylay her by suggesting a little cat-and-mouse foreplay in the restricted areas of the museum. (Hey, it wasn't something he wanted to do, but he would force himself in order to help Sydney!)

Unfortunately, when Vaughn tried to follow her down to the basement of the museum, he ran into some trouble with a security guard, who ordered him back to the reception, stating--rather overbearingly, he might add--that the other parts of the museum were off-limits to guests. Vaughn pretended to acquiesce, but the moment the guard turned the corner, he was off again towards the stairway that would take him to the first floor and then on down to the basement.

Having memorized the museum specs, Vaughn knew he was close to the vault. He noticed the open security door and withdrew his gun from its holster.

Inside the vault, Sydney was slowly gaining some insight into Anna's strange behavior. "You like him, don't you?" She stared at Anna.

"Don't be stupid." Anna said disdainfully, her ear pressed futilely against the steel door. "He is nothing to me."

Sydney wasn't buying it. "I saw the look on your face when you heard his voice."

Anna's imperious façade faltered a bit. "He is just someone who doesn't want anything more from me than the pleasure of my company. I don't find that so much." Anna looked particularly vulnerable at that moment and Sydney almost felt a sort of kinship with her.

"I know what you mean." Sydney agreed. "You don't want to kill him, do you?"

Anna gave her a long look. "I don't want him to know I am involved in the robbery." She finally said and then motioned Sydney towards the door with her gun. "You will knock him out. Then I will tie the both of you up, find the brooch and be able to make my getaway."

Well, it was better than being shot in the heart, Sydney grimaced and reluctantly picked up a heavy piece of sculpture. She positioned herself behind the door, Anna's gun poking her in the back.

It seemed like hours passed before the door to the vault opened. Sydney was about to pass out in anticipation of Vaughn's arrival.

"Mariana?" Vaughn called out softly, pushing the door open very cautiously.

When he was all the way inside the vault, Anna nudged her. Sydney gave a silent prayer that Vaughn would forgive her for this and then swung. Vaughn yelped upon impact of clay hitting bone and fell to the floor in a heap. Sydney winced as she heard the thud of his body hitting the floor. Then she heard the sound of something else dropping to the ground and her heart rose in her throat as she saw the gun Vaughn had been holding skitter away underneath the table.

Oh, God, if Anna sees the gun, she'll know "Russell Phillips" is a fraud! She thought frantically. In the midst of the confusion, Sydney made a mad dash for the table and was able to kick the weapon under a standing bookcase holding a number of ancient artifacts in the process of being cleaned. She gave a huge sigh of relief and then focused her attention back to Anna and Vaughn.

As it turned out, she needn't have been so worried.

"Did you have to hit him so hard?" Anna rushed to the fallen Vaughn and momentarily forgot to cover Sydney as she cradled his head in her lap, brushing the hair away from his forehead. Sydney knew she had the opportunity to escape at that moment and lock Anna in the vault, but jealousy won out over prudence and she knew there was no way she would leave the two of them alone together.

"Sorry." Sydney uttered inadequately. She wanted to be the one tending to Vaughn bashed-in head and she certainly didn't appreciate Anna fawning all over him. Who was the person who had ordered Sydney to clonk Vaughn on the head, after all?

"Anna, if you keep fussing over him, he'll wake up and wonder why you're here!" Sydney hissed at her impatiently.

Anna acknowledged her words very reluctantly and gently laid Vaughn's head on the cold floor. "Get him into that chair and tie him up." Anna tossed a ball of twine she found on one of the supply tables at Sydney.

Sydney did as she was told, "accidentally" leaving Vaughn's bindings a little loose. Anna made a cursory check of her knots and then instructed her to sit in the other chair, so that she could be trussed up herself. With each loop anchoring her to the chair, Sydney could feel the coarse string biting into her bare skin. Anna was being merciless and Sydney knew she was enjoying it.

When Sydney was securely tethered to her seat, Anna went in search of the brooch. Sydney began to struggle against her bonds while Anna was otherwise occupied, but it seemed to be of no use. She could wiggle her fingers but not enough to catch hold of the twine and Vaughn was too far away from her (not to mention dead to the world) to help.

Sydney heard a joyous shout in the bowels of the vault and surmised that Anna must have found the fake Rambaldi brooch. At least that would be one score in my favor, Sydney thought, in somewhat good humor. After all, she was still alive and it appeared that Anna would allow her to stay that way.

"I found what I was looking for!" Anna singsonged at Sydney, waving the brooch in front of her face right before she dropped it into her beaded handbag. "It's too bad you're going to have to go back empty-handed." She pouted at Sydney and then laughed.

"You won this round, Anna. That's all it is." Sydney scoffed. "There will be other days when you won't be so lucky."

"Well, it's thanks to him that you will have other days." Anna gestured at Vaughn. Her expression became one of regret. "It is a pity. He is so attractive and attentive and we had such a good time together." She reached up to caress his cheek with her finger. Sydney felt her fist clenching into a ball.

All of a sudden, Anna swooped down and kissed Vaughn hard on the lips. Sydney grew even more incensed at the liberties being taken while Vaughn was unable to resist, but consoled herself that at least he wouldn't be able to remember it.

"Ta-ta, Sydney." Anna waved her fingers at her, a triumphant look on her face. "I expect you'll be found sometime tomorrow morning and by that time, I will be out of the country." Anna closed the vault door behind her with a whoosh and a flourish.

Anna had turned out the overhead lights, but the room remained dimly lit by the desk lamp Anna had left on in her search for the twine. Sydney glanced at Vaughn, whose head had lolled onto his chest. God, shouldn't he have woken up by now? Sydney asked herself, trying not to panic. She hoped he didn't have a concussion.

Vaughn was just a smidgen too far away from her to nudge him with her foot, not that she could have, anyway, since Anna had tied her legs to the chair. She had to settle for calling his name in order to wake him up.

"Vaughn!" She called to him in a loud whisper. "Vaughn, please wake up!"

She kept on saying his name, willing him to awaken just so that she could get rid of the large lump of anxiety that had settled in her throat. After several minutes, she heard a moan and a groan. "Vaughn?" She said his name hopefully.

He opened one eye very carefully. "Syd?" He said her name rather shakily.

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God." She murmured. "How do you feel?" She asked solicitously.

"Like I had my head bashed in with a hockey stick." He winced in pain. "Who hit me?"

She gave him a sheepish grin. "I'm sorry. Anna made me do it." She confessed.

"Anna was here?" Vaughn tried not to move his head, hopeful that the room would stop spinning. "Damn it, why do I feel as if I'm on one of those Tilt-a-Whirl rides at the county fair?" He said snappishly.

"Oh, Vaughn, I didn't mean to hit you so hard." Sydney was beside herself.

He gave her a heavy-lidded look, signifying his doubt. "Yeah, right, after the way you laid into me while we were dancing, I'm sure you're really broken up about it." He wanted to rub his head as if that would make the pain go away, but he was struggling with his bound hands.

"You know I would never do anything to hurt you!" She cried out indignantly. "Not willingly, anyway." She added as an afterthought.

"Uh-huh." Vaughn sounded unconvinced.

"Vaughn, are you questioning my sincerity?" Sydney became a little miffed and suddenly all the sore feelings between them came rushing back to the surface.

"Maybe I'm just a tad skeptical that you didn't feel even a little bit of enjoyment out of smashing my skull." He quipped at her. "Like maybe you got a little extra jolt out of causing me some pain?"

Sydney gave him a steely glare. "Well, honestly, if you think I would deliberately hurt you, you don't know me at all!" She flared at him and refused to look him in the eye.

Vaughn's jaw softened as he gazed at the defiantly beautiful woman sitting in front of him. He had only meant to tease her, but she was obviously taking it personally.

"Syd, can we go back a few minutes, please?" He said cajolingly. "To when you were still feeling badly for knocking me out?"

"Those feelings are long gone by now." She said haughtily.

Vaughn's lips twitched in amusement. "Sydney, I'm sorry." He gave in first because he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't. "I only meant to razz you a little bit, not make you madder at me."

"Hmph." She sniffed disdainfully.

"Syd, whining and pouting does not become you, so cut it out." Vaughn admonished her, but in a gentle fashion. "Come on, while we're on the subject, we may as well talk about it."

"Talk about what?" She uttered through clenched teeth.

"Can we talk about why you were so upset that I kept what I was doing a secret from you?"

Sydney suddenly looked fidgety. "Do you think that's a good idea?"

"Well, since it doesn't look as if we're going to get out of here anytime soon, what else would you suggest?" He inquired.

"My father will look for me sooner or later." Her brown eyes, normally so warm and expressive, were glacial. "Unlike some people I know, I can count on him."

Ouch. "Sydney, you know you can still count on me." Vaughn protested. "Nothing has changed."

"I don't know about that." She looked wounded.

"Sydney, you're pouting again." He scolded her.

She made a face at him. "Vaughn, you know how I am about secrets. My life is one gigantic pile of them, layer upon layer upon layer, and I hate that." Sydney sounded tired all of a sudden and it touched him. "I hate that no one knows who I really am because of all the secrets I have to keep." She said softly.

"Except for you, Vaughn." Sydney caught his gaze and held it. "You know me as completely and as honestly as anyone ever has. I don't have any secrets with you and maybe it's too much for me to expect, but I kind of thought I shared that same reciprocity with you."

Vaughn let the magnitude of her words wash over him. "Are you telling me you want to know my secrets?" He asked incredulously.

She smiled. "That would make me very happy."

He returned her smile with a shy one of his own. "Okay, then, ask me whatever you want and I'll tell you the truth."

Sydney looked satisfied with his response. "Why didn't you tell me about what you were doing?"

"I was ordered by Devlin not to tell you." Vaughn replied. "You weren't involved in the operation at that point and he didn't want any extraneous people in the know about my undercover op."

"Oh, is that what I am?" Sydney's manner was exaggerated. "'Extraneous people'?"

"I didn't say I felt that way." He said mildly. "That was Devlin's viewpoint."

"And you always do whatever Devlin tells you, right?" Sydney gave him a pointed look, knowing full well it was a lame excuse.

Vaughn flushed. "In this case, I had to, Sydney. Anna could not know that you and I work together."

"I'm quite well-versed in Double Agent etiquette, Vaughn." She said with a superior air.

"They thought you might try to interfere." He added meekly.

"Oh, really?" Her eyes suddenly blazed and he had never seen her look more attractive.

"Sydney," Vaughn tried to soothe her ruffled feathers. "You said it yourself that I'm inexperienced when it comes to field work and Anna Espinosa is the best agent K-Directorate has."

"What did they think I would do?" She said exasperatedly. "Ride in on a white charger to save you if you got into trouble?"

"You said you didn't want to have to worry about me getting hurt." He reminded her with a touch of bitterness in his voice.

Sydney looked contrite. "I never should have said that to you. I didn't mean it, but I was just--" She stopped suddenly, unsure if she wanted to continue. "--scared." She finished softly.

"Scared I would get myself killed?" He quipped.

"That's not something to joke about." She admonished him. "But, yes, part of the reason I mouthed off to you was because I know what Anna's capable of and I didn't want you to fall victim to her."

"Well, to tell you the truth, she was actually rather tame." He confessed. "I don't think she ever suspected me of being anything but a man who was interested in her."

"And that was just an act, right?" Sydney realized she was holding her breath as she asked that question.

"Of course." Vaughn was quick to reply and she wondered if he was too quick, as if he didn't want to dwell on the subject. Unfortunately for him, she still had one other matter to clear up in regard to Anna.

"So you didn't have to sleep with her in order to get what you wanted?" She asked bluntly.

Vaughn shot her a surprised look. "Syd, do you know how incredibly sexist that sounds?" He chastised her. "You'd bite my head off if I asked you the same question."

"Well, we both know that I don't need to sleep with someone in order to obtain information." Sydney was being a tad pompous and he called her on it.

"Unlike myself, apparently." He replied drolly. "Don't you think I have any moral standards whatsoever?"

"Of course you do." Sydney felt herself flush. "I'm sorry for even bringing it up." She mumbled uncomfortably.

"But apparently, you did for a reason." Vaughn prodded her.

Sydney dropped her eyes away from his face. "I didn't like thinking about you…being with her." She said awkwardly.

Vaughn's face softened. "Sydney, even if I'd been tempted, I wouldn't have." He said soberly. I wouldn't have done that to you.

She looked up and found him watching her. "I think I always knew that, but I let my imagination run wild." She responded in a soft voice and she realized she truly did believe him. She believed she knew him well enough by now to trust that he wouldn't do anything to hurt her.

"You know, when I got the Joey's Pizza call and I went to the warehouse to find Weiss there in your place, I thought you had asked to be removed as my handler." Sydney confessed in a quiet voice. "I thought you were mad at me because I doubted your abilities as an agent."

"Well, I do wish you had had a little more confidence in me."

"I do!" She said quickly. "You've always been incredible whenever I've asked you to do something and I should have had more faith." Sydney looked properly remorseful.

Vaughn was grateful for her admission. "Sydney, I was never mad at you." He admitted candidly. "It just seemed easier to let you be mad at me so that you wouldn't poke your nose into what I was doing."

She nodded understandingly. "So then you are still my handler?"

"Of course."

"Good." Sydney felt a great relief wash over her. "Forgive the double negative, but I don't like not having you in my life."

Vaughn tried in vain not to show how pleased he was by her statement. "Well, in the spirit of double negativity, let me say I was never not in your life." He declared in a grand gesture.

She gave him a grin. "I know, but for a few days, I thought you weren't and it made me crazy." She looked at him shyly. "You have become an important person in my life and when you're not around, I notice it."

"Likewise." He acknowledged. The look that passed between them was heavy with all of those unspoken declarations that they knew they could not say to each other. Vaughn wanted to profess his love for her. Sydney wanted to let him know that the feelings he felt for her were returned with equal intensity. Unfortunately, they both knew this wasn't the right time. Confessions of the heart should be made when the moon was full and the stars were aligned and they didn't have the threat of certain death hanging over their heads. Only time would tell whether they would ever get the chance to make their feelings known to one another.

Vaughn was the first to look away. "You know, Devlin is going to have a fit when he finds out we blew it." He commented, his voice surprisingly unshaky.

"What do you mean?" Sydney slowly let out the breath she had been holding.

He looked at her pointedly. "Sydney, Anna got away with the brooch. K-Directorate is going to gain the edge over us."

A small smile broke out on her face. "No, they're not."

Vaughn gave her a strange look. Was she in denial or something? "Do you know something I don't?" He quizzed her.

"Well, while you were playing the part of Prince Charming so convincingly, my father alerted me to the fact that the piece we were after wasn't being displayed tonight, so I broke into the vault earlier and replaced the real brooch with the fake one Marshall gave me." Sydney looked like the cat who had swallowed the canary.

He shot her a delighted grin and then quickly sobered. "Then I'm the one who messed everything up, aren't I?" Vaughn sounded weary and a little sad. "I guess you were right in being skeptical of my abilities."

Her heart ached when she saw how dejected he looked. "No, Vaughn, how can you say that?" Sydney protested.

"Well, if I hadn't gone after Anna, we wouldn't be here right now." He pointed out.

"Maybe." She said tentatively. "But don't forget, you went after her because you were looking out for me."

Vaughn gave her a shrewd look. "And you went after her because you were looking out for me."

She gave him a little smile. "We watch each other's backs. That's why we work well together."

Vaughn looked thoughtful for a moment and then let out a chuckle. "I guess we do at that."

Sydney grinned, happy that he appeared to be in good humor once more. "Now then, I think if you work at those knots for a little bit, you'll find out that I didn't tie them as tightly as I should have." She had a sly look on her face.

He gave her a surprised look. "And you waited until now to tell me this?" He started struggling against the ties binding his arms to the chair.

"Well, we needed this time together, wouldn't you say?" Sydney gave him a wide-eyed innocent look. "We needed to get reacquainted with each other."

"You're acting as if we haven't seen each other in five years, instead of just five days." Vaughn remarked.

"It felt like five years, Vaughn." Sydney said softly. She found herself desperately wishing she could confess all the bottled-up feelings inside her that had risen to the surface when she had thought he was pulling away from her. She wanted him to know how much she cared about him, but something held her back. With a deep regret, she knew it would somehow cheapen what they felt for each other if they couldn't give of themselves to the fullest.

Vaughn's eyes softened. "Yeah, for me, too, Syd." At that moment, he felt his resolve weakening and he wanted to push the envelope further just to see how far he could take this. But then he realized that it would be unfair to the both of them. It was nonsense to begin something they didn't have any hope of finishing. At least, for the time being.

Confessing your love for someone was supposed to change your life. If your feelings weren't returned, your life pretty much went into the toilet, at least for a few weeks, anyway (Vaughn wasn't the type of man to let his romantic entanglements drag him down for very long). However, if your beloved were to express that she loved you back, then your life is suddenly glorious and vibrant and magical and you hope that it lasts that way forever.

Vaughn knew that if he told Sydney he was in love with her, the change in his life wouldn't fall anywhere near either of those spectrums. If she said, "Thanks, but no thanks.", he could kiss his working relationship with her goodbye and his personal relationship with her right along with it. It would be too unbearably awkward to continue to see her, to have her know how he felt about her. He would get reassigned, most likely never see her again and probably die a bitter, lonely old man.

On the other hand, if she, by some miracle, returned his feelings, he would experience a brief moment of true happiness and then it would hit him that their lives would become even more complicated than were already were. Illicit rendezvous in out-of-the-way locales were fun and exciting in the beginning, but the stress of lying and hiding and not being able to shout from the rooftops that Sydney Bristow loved him would inevitably shatter them apart and once again, he would probably die a bitter, lonely old man.

No, they had to do this the right away, by the book. Vaughn found that sort of ironic, considering how Sydney was never one to follow the rules if they didn't suit her, frequently coercing him to do the same. If she told him she loved him and damn the consequences, he knew it ultimately wouldn't last and that wasn't what he wanted from her.

So the best course of action was to maintain the status quo. They could dance around it, let it tease and excite them, but they couldn't acknowledge it. Not yet. Not until they were free.

Eventually, Vaughn was able to loosen his restraints enough for him to move his arms. Once his hands were free, he was able to untie his legs and then he freed Sydney. She told him to retrieve his gun from underneath the bookshelf while she punched in the security code to the vault on the keypad next to the door.

"Lucky the museum has a failsafe system in case someone gets locked in here." Vaughn commented.

"Yeah, the last thing we need is to be caught in here." Sydney tried the handle to the door and it opened immediately. "We'd be toast for sure."

"So what do we do now?" She asked, once they were outside of the vault and on the other side of the security door.

"You're asking me?" He gave her a helpless look that was just for show. "You're the expert, Spy Girl."

She made a face at him. "What time is it?" She didn't bother to wait for his reply and grabbed his wrist. "It's almost midnight. Maybe we can sneak out with the remaining stragglers from the reception."

"So now all we have to do is get back up to the reception unnoticed." Vaughn's mouth quirked.

"Hey, we got down here okay, didn't we? We should be able to blend right back in with the crowd."

The couple started for the stairs. "Did you see any guards on your way down here?" Vaughn asked Sydney.

"Just one little old man, whistling Glenn Miller tunes." Sydney shrugged. "He was harmless."

"Well, I ran into a big, beefy guy who's not." He said as they took the stairs as quickly as possible. "We'll have to try to avoid him."

Vaughn and Sydney were able to find their way from the basement back to the second floor of the museum, where the reception was taking place. As they crept up the second-floor stairwell, they knew they were almost home-free.

Then Vaughn heard the approaching footsteps. He stopped in his tracks and listened intently. He could tell that the person was trying to be as quiet as possible, but that was impossible to do on hardwood floors.

Vaughn laid flat against the wall and Sydney, following blindly, almost went past him around the corner. He grabbed her by the waist just in time to hold her back.

What is it? She mouthed silently.

Vaughn raised his arm in front of his chest and stuck his thumb up, motioning over his shoulder.

Sydney picked up on the sound of the footsteps almost immediately. If they were caught roaming the restricted areas of the museum, it was certain to raise questions. They would be detained, confidential information might come to light. It was simply not an option.

The footsteps were coming closer. Whoever it was could be just around the corner. Sydney reacted without a second thought and suddenly slipped her hand behind Vaughn's neck, pulling his head down to hers so that she could engage him in a passionate kiss.

Vaughn was so stunned by what was happening that he let out a brief cry of surprise (a purely involuntary reaction, I assure you), which got lost as Sydney's mouth covered his. She was pressing her body against him, her fingers riffling through his hair and he was responding in kind, his hands roaming across the soft skin of her bare back and maybe even a bit lower once or twice. In those few fleeting dazed moments, he didn't wonder why she was kissing him so hungrily as if she couldn't get enough of him. All he could think of was giving in to the pleasure.

From the instant their lips touched, Sydney knew without a doubt that this was the moment she had been planning for, even if it had only been in her subconscious mind. This was the reason for the eye-popping red dress, the tantalizing perfume, the subtle beginnings of a flirtation (even if it had been borne through supposed drunkenness, she had, after all, been completely sober). As she felt Vaughn's hands exploring her body with skilled expertise, she gave a soft moan as his lips trailed down her neck. A burning desire arose within her and she gave in to it, murmuring his given name for the first time as his mouth covered hers once more.

There was a throat-clearing behind them. "Sydney!" A voice hissed disapprovingly. They both knew that voice. Their eyes flew open at the same time while they were still lip-locked and then Sydney (reluctantly?) pulled away from him.

"Dad!" Sydney squeaked out, looking guilty. Vaughn grimaced and then slowly turned around. Jack was glaring at him as he expected, but it wasn't the glare he thought it would be. Jack Bristow could communicate volumes with his facial expressions and this one wasn't the You-Incompetent-Idiot!-You-Almost-Screwed-Up-The-Mission! glower. This was a Why-The-Hell-Are-You-Touching-My-Daughter? scowl. Jack's reaction was not unlike the kind a father would give to a boy making out with his teenaged daughter in the backseat of his car and that unnerved Vaughn tremendously.

"Jack," Vaughn acknowledged tentatively. He was rewarded with another withering glance.

"Dad, we thought you were a security guard." Sydney explained hastily. "We didn't want to get caught sneaking around the museum."

"So you thought it would be better to get caught--" Jack stopped in mid-sentence as if even uttering the words was distasteful to him. "--making out in the museum instead?" He clearly believed Sydney was feeding him a line and she blushed. Okay, so maybe she had taken advantage of the situation (and what a lovely advantage it had been!), but it would have made a good cover story.

Or at least, that's what she told herself. The fact that she and Vaughn had been able to share their first kiss was just a delicious added bonus.

"Sydney just reacted on the spur of the moment, Jack." Vaughn tried to deflect some of Jack's pique away from Sydney. Unfortunately, it worked and he was now bearing the brunt of Jack's ire. "It wasn't planned." He added lamely.

"I have no doubt you believe that, Agent Vaughn, but I know better." Vaughn gave him a look of consternation. Was he actually saying that Sydney instigated that kiss out of want and not necessity?

"Dad!" Sydney said sharply, embarrassed by her father's innuendo. Vaughn say the high color in her cheeks and he could swear she was blushing. In that brief instant, he knew.

Jack was leading her by the elbow away from him. "Sydney?" Vaughn grabbed her hand and she slipped from Jack's grasp. She turned to face him, gazing at him as he wished she always would.

"I get it." He said softly, the message in his eyes telling her loud and clear that her secret had been found out. But it was safe. With him.

Sydney's eyes widened slightly as she realized he knew. Then she smiled. "So do I." She murmured, squeezing his hand. It was the best she could do under her father's hawklike scrutiny.

But it was enough for Vaughn. It would be enough to keep him going.

THE END

Author's Note: And that's a wrap!  What can I say except I hope everyone who read my story enjoyed it and found it entertaining.  In a little over a month from now, we're going to head into a second season of Alias and I really hope we get a lot more Sydney/Vaughn flirtation this year.  But in the meantime, I continue to write fan fiction, which I hope will tide me over until J.J. decrees that our favorite couple can finally get together!

Anyway, thanks to everyone who read and reviewed.  It really does inspire me to try to do my best when I know other people are going to critique what I wrote.  I'm in the midst of writing another fic right now and just to let you know, it is a Post-ATY story, which I didn't think I would ever do since so many came out after the season finale.  But I got hit with an idea and decided to run with it, so I hope you'll check it out when the first chapter is ready.

Thanks again,

Rhonda