A

Chapter 1

"Sydney! Come on girl you promised! Now let me see it!" Francie yelled through the changing room.
Sydney rolled her eyes before calling out her response, "Alright fine." She pulled back the curtain and stepped out.
"Syd. That dress is so perfect on you." Amy Tippin said coming out of another room in a much shorter gown with red piping along the sides that matched the shade of her hair.
"Both of you look great and I'm stuck here in this winged nightmare!" Francie complained, gesturing to the puffy sleeved gown she wore. Amy and Sydney laughed sympathetically.
"The Francine Calfo official review on the gowns at Chae's Bridal Shop. I'm sure you'll make yourself popular with the owner." Will said coming up behind them.
"What are you doing in here? You're not suppose to see the dress before the wedding!" Francie said sternly.
"Oh come on!" Will began.
"GET OUT!" The they said giving in a shove toward the door.
"Alright, alright!" He gave up, leaving with an eye roll. The three women laughed, shaking their heads.
"Well I think I'm going with this one, so I'm going to go show mom," Amy said wondering father back into the maze of changing rooms.
"Yeah and I'm going to go change out of this thing before Will has a change to come back with his camera!" Francie said.
"Okay sweetie," Sydney held back a giggle and the turned back into her own changing room when she caught something out of the corner of her eye.
"Dad?" She called, hosted up the ten layers of tulle, and made her way to the front of the store where her father was, "Dad what are you doing here?"
"Devlin needs the disk from the Cairo mission." Jack said.
"Oh.....okay just a minute," She said heading back toward the changing room. Jack hesitated for a moment before following her.
"I was going to give him them tomorrow," She said while rummaging through her briefcase.
"I know, but he said he wanted the reviewed right away," Jack explained.
"How'd you find me here?" Sydney asked.
"Abigail Clarks told me," He explained. Abigail was a fellow teacher at San Luis, a private school for the children of visiting diplomats and foreign operatives. Sydney taught three classes a day there while still doing field work. Her missions were about two per month, a big improvement to the usual two per week at SD-6.
"Here they are," She said finding the appropriate disk.
"Thank you," Jack said and pocketed the disk before adding, "It looks very pretty on you."
Sydney smiled at how awkward it was still for her father to say things like that to her. They would probably never be a Kodak moment family, but they would be there for each other to death and beyond if the other was in need.
"Thank you," She said and sighed, "I suppose you're going to be like Francie and say I should have been wearing it years ago?"
Jack's features stiffened. He paused for a moment before answering, "I would say that the reason you haven't worn it years ago is due to nerves and issues with commitment. There now I've said it and can't be accused of trying to talk you out of settling down for reasons of my own displeasure."
Sydney couldn't help but giggle, "But that is is how you feel right?"
"Absolutely," Jack said curtly, "Once someone comes a long whom I see fit to marry you, you shall know it."
Her giggle turned into a full blown laugh at that, "Yeah that's all fine and good in theory, but I think the question to ask is not 'when will you find someone you deem fit?' it's 'does such a person exist?'"
Jack started at her for a moment before answering, "Most likely no."
Sydney laughed again, "Thanks, at least, for the honesty dad."
"Hey come on this is not fair! You harpoon me about not seeing any wedding dress yet you guys go prancing around the store in them-," Will began jumping into their conversation, "Jack? Hey, how have you been?"
"Hello Will. I heard the news, congratulations." Jack said stiffly.
"Thanks a lot," Will said, "You're coming right?"
"I don't know about that," Jack answered. Sydney smiled once again at his obvious discomfort. Ever since Taipei Will had considered Jack to be a friend. Jack was of course resistant to becoming close with anyone, but Sydney could tell that he respected Will's friendship.
"Oh come on you have to. We'll get Syd here to talk you into it!" Will said, putting his arm around her shoulders to give her a light shake.
"We'll see," Jack said, and then turned to look directly at Sydney, "I have to get back to work." He left out the front door without another word.
"Well I'm going to go see if I can find Francie to tease some more her about that puffy dress," Will said.
"Okay, see you later" Sydney said giving Will a smile and eye roll as he left. She turned to face herself in a full length mirror. An oppressive heaviness ran through her entire body stopping mainly at her heart. She quickly shook the feelings away. Today was not a day for depressing herself with the past, today she was shopping with her friends, today was a happy day! She told herself as she turned back toward the dressing room.