She woke up the next morning from a cramp in her neck. Her alarm clock had not gone off and she was about 45 minutes late. She threw on some clothes and ran out the door without even getting in a shower. For the next four hours she felt frazzled and disgusting. Once all of her classes were finally over she was so desperate for a shower that she went home for a quick one before her meeting with Devlin.
When she rushed into Devlin's office after breaking every traffic law in existence to get there on time his secretary gave her a confused look and said, "Didn't you get the message we sent?"
"What message?" Sydney asked.
"Something came up the required Mr. Devlin's immediate attention, so your debriefing has been rescheduled for next Tuesday," she explained.
The good news in that was that she was on schedule for the first time that day. She stopped at the ladies room for a moment to regain herself. As she was splashing some water on her face her purse toppled over spilling the contents onto the floor. She sighed and began picking them up when a stall door swung open, hitting her in the head.
"Ouch! Damn it!" She swore in exasperation, and looked up to glare at whoever had opened the door.
Dr. Barnett smiled widely at her, "Sydney, hello."
'Oh great! This is just what I need!' she thought to herself before responding, "Hello, Dr. Barnett. How are you?"
"I'm good, and how are you?" Barnett answered following Sydney back over to the sinks.
"Very well, thank you," Sydney responded tensely.
"You seem stressed," She commented, looking at Sydney questioningly. Sydney fought the urge to tell her to mind her own freaking business. 'She's just doing her job Syd. Give the woman a break!'
"I'm fine, doctor. Just running a little late today," She said.
"Hmm.......well if you ever need to talk about anything my door is always open," Dr. Barnett said.
"I'll keep that in mind," Sydney muttered sarcastically as she walked out the door.
The rest of the day involved battling traffic while picking up her outfit for the rehearsal dinner that night, dropping off invitations at the post office, and buying the groceries she promised Francie she would. She got done with the groceries shopping at about dusk.
"That's an awful lot to eat for a little thing like you," a man commented from behind her in the parking lot.
Sydney whirled around to rip into whoever said that, but was stopped by a familiar laugh, "You should have seen your face."
"Don't start, I'm not in the mood," She warned.
"Bad day?" He asked.
"The worst," She said.
"Aww poor Syd," He said as helped her load the bags into the trunk of her car. Once all the bags were in he slammed the trunk shut and sat down on it, whipping sweat from his forehead, "God it's hot today! Aren't you hot in that?"
She looked down at her olive turtleneck, but made no attempt to answer. He didn't wait around to hear one anyway, jumping off the car and straitening himself up to stretch his back. An action which earned him plenty of attention from a group of bikini clad teens in the flatbed of a passing pickup truck. Sydney rolled her eyes at their indiscrete leers, although she couldn't blame them. She'd never made it a point to look before, but upon doing so it was obvious that one would say the man standing in front of her fell short in the looks department. Tan skin and sun highlighted hair always demanded attention, not to mention soft green eyes. 'I used to know someone with eyes like that.' She swore to herself. This was definitely not working to improve her mood any.
"Well I have to get home to change before the rehearsal," she said.
"Yeah, I'm on my way there now," he nodded.
"You're wearing that to the rehearsal?" she asked, indicating to his surfer get up.
"Yes," He said as if it were obvious, "I'd wear this to the wedding if I could."
She shook her head, "Whatever you say."
"Hey you know what we should do?" He said, as she headed toward the drivers seat, "We should play hooky"
"Play hooky?" She repeated questioningly.
"Yeah, you, Francie, and I. We leave after the rehearsal.....go to a movie or something. We can let Will and Amy deal with their rehearsal dinner," He suggested.
"Chase, all I can say to you and Amy is 'good luck'," she said sarcastically. He grinned back at her as she pulled out of the parking space.

It was only about 9:00 when the rehearsal dinner started, but she was already exhausted. Though she smiled her way through most of the night for appearances sake.
"Did you see the rehearsal?" One of Will's aunts asked his mother, "It was so amazing I can't imagine what the actual wedding will be like."
"Yes, double wedding no less!" Patsy Tippin said shaking her head.
"Well think of it as having to pay for one big wedding rather than two smaller ones," Sydney joked.
"Right, Sydney," they agreed. Sydney laughed as she went back and sat down at her table.
"Amy I want you to meet someone. This is my cousin, remember I told you about him?" She heard Chase say behind her.
"Oh yeah the one who......ummm, never mind," Amy stumbled over her words.
"It's okay. Everyone's going to have to be able to talk about it eventually. It's very nice to meet you Amy," A familiar voice responded. Sydney froze.
"Nice to meet you too," Amy said, "Let's see um, I don't see Will around anywhere."
"Her brother Will, he's the one we're doubling with," Chase explained.
"Yeah, yeah," The same voice said, "Well....congratulations to you both."
Sydney shut her eyes and shook her head several times. 'Don't do this Syd! You know it's not possible.'
She opened her eyes again and clenched her hands into fists. 'For God sake! This is the reason you haven't been able to go on with your life before!'
In spite of her common sense screaming at her, she turned slowly in her chair to see Chase and Amy talking with..............a tall man with black hair. She turned back around and sighed.
"What the hell did you expect?" she murmured into her gin and tonic before gulping down the last of the it and crunching the ice with her teeth. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of someone disappearing out through the foyer. Her spy instincts kicked in immediately as she surveyed the room for anything else suspicious looking. Nothing. She casually got up and headed for the front door. The parking lot showed nothing out of the ordinary at first until a slight movement from an SUV across the street attracted her attention. She crept over to it in the shadows of the street lamps. After taking a moment to draw the miniature pistol in her purse and brace herself, she grabbed the door handle and flung it open.
"Oh my god........"

Okay, okay I know you guys are loosing patience with me. I promise that the question of whether Syd is marrying Will will be answered in the next chapter. Which will be done very soon.