{Things have been very hectic for the last few months, and I really apologise for not updating. This chapter is very different from any other I've written. Please let me know what you think.

Thankyou very much to everyone who has reviewed this story so far, and to everyone who has contacted me over it. I'm blown away by the reaction to this story, and I hope that you will enjoy this latest chapter. Again, I apologise for taking so long in updating. Things have been very busy.

Please PLEASE review, or even just say 'hey!' because I love to hear from people who have read my work. It makes my day to read an email, or a post where people are saying they've read my stuff. Anyway, on to the weird new chapter. Hope you like it. It's very different.}

[CHAPTER FOURTEEN]

****

"So what are you saying, Michael?" Sydney raised an eyebrow suggestively. "You like to dance naked in front of strange women?"

Vaughn's eyes flashed mischievously. "Only at the weekends."

Swinging the loose bowtie around her finger, Sydney grinned. "It's Saturday…" she stepped towards him slowly, "… and you barely know me."

"That's true." Matching her flirtatious tone, he slid towards her. He whispered to her, lips gently brushing the tip of her ear. "You're a stranger to me. I've suddenly forgotten everything I ever knew about you…" they were inches apart now, the bow tie in Sydney's hand being the only thing to separate the two. "…why don't you help me remember who you are?"

The bow tie suddenly found itself on the floor, as Vaughn pulled her aggressively to him, eyes ablaze with hunger for the forbidden. He locked eyes with his paramour, declaring his love through the passion burning in his glittering emerald eyes. Sydney couldn't tear herself from him gaze.

"You know who I am…" she whispered hoarsely. The feel of his arms around her felt like a thousand hot needles, shooting through her body. She didn't want it to stop. Her hands slid over his arms slowly, feeling the exposed muscle under her fingertips. Never before had she felt so warm and safe within someone else's arms. As if sensing her thoughts, he tightened his embrace, his lips pressing softly against her forehead. She closed her eyes, lost in his intoxicating scent and the giddy sensation of being in his passionate embrace. "You know who I am…" she repeated, looking up at him tenderly. "…I'm yours." she breathed softly, before reaching up to touch his lips softly with her own.

****

The metal spoon made a loud clatter against the bowl, as Sydney lost her grip. The image of Vaughn's lips on hers caught her by surprise. Eric Weiss looked at her from across the dining table, an amused smile on his face. Daydreaming wasn't a good idea, especially if the object's friend was sitting across the table from you.

"Someone's distracted today." Eric remarked, hiding a smirk behind the coffee mug. Sydney looked down at her cheerios, feeling a flush creeping up her neck. The situation hadn't quite played out the way she had hoped it would. Her face turned a deeper shade of red, as she recalled the events of the night before.

****

"I always wanted to be a Chippendale", he had told her. The immediate mental picture was Michael Vaughn parading around the room, dancing to 'you can leave your hat on' with a bundle of ones sticking out the elastic of his boxer shorts. It took all her self-control not to giggle. She just grinned, and handed him back the bowtie.

"Every Chippendale needs his bowtie."

****

Sydney cringed into her cheerios. She had known from the moment those words were vocalized, the night would simply get worse. It must have been the fact that Michael Vaughn was standing in his boxer shorts, professing to her that he secretly wanted to be a stripper, but all coherent thought had jumped out the window, along with her ability to speak properly.

She looked up again, as Vaughn pulled a chair out from the table, and sat on it gingerly. He was fully clothed. At least Sydney would be able to form actual sentences at the breakfast table.

Vaughn turned to Eric, who was trying to refrain from lifting the last donut from the centre of the table. The concentration and resolve was etched in his face, sweat beads sliding from his forehead. He thought better of breaking his friends focus, and turned in Sydney's direction. Her face was bright red. He could feel his own face light up in sympathy. The night before had turned out to be one of the most embarrassing nights of his life.

****

A Chippendale?!? What was he thinking?!?? He was standing in front of Sydney, in nothing but black boxers and a cheeky grin, telling her he wanted to dance around naked! He could wave goodbye to the smooth chat-up line he'd been working on, along with his dignity.

At least she had played along, handing him back the bowtie. If only it was big enough for him to hide behind. Instead, he grinned at her, the cheeky grin he couldn't seem to keep off his face, and reached for the shawl draped over their sofa. Sydney had backed away from him, giving him more room to cover up. He had cursed himself for not just grabbing her then. In retrospect, it would have been a lot less embarrassing, even if she did turn him down.

"It's cold in here." He had wrapped the shawl around him tightly, and looked around. The fire was out.

"Well, we're on the top of a mountain, and you *are* standing around in your boxers, Vaughn." Sydney had pointed to the black material hanging down past the shawl.

"I'll light the fire."

****

Sydney had pushed the bowl of cheerios away, standing up. She had to go throw some water on her face, before it ignited.

"Are you ok?" Vaughn asked, a concerned look mixing with the bright red colour of embarrassment on his face.

"Yeah, yeah." She nodded excessively, as if nodding would stop the flush from reaching her cheeks. Sliding her hair behind her ear, she lifted the bowl, and placed it on the kitchen counter. "I'm just going to take a shower." With that, she disappeared from the room, leaving Eric and Vaughn alone.

"Well?" Eric grinned smugly at his friend over the coffee mug he was holding tightly.

"Well what?" Vaughn looked at his best friend, eyebrow raised.

"I'm not being funny, Mike, but you two made a hell of a noise last night."

Vaughn's jaw dropped. "And you think…?" He was silent, unable to finish the sentence. Instead, he gave a low snort of irritation, and reached for the last donut. Eric's face fell.

"Hey…"

"Oh, I'm sorry…" he replied, face a picture of innocence. "Did you want this?" with a smirk, he bit into it, pink jelly escaping, and running down the side of his face. Eric chuckled, and sat back in the chair.

"So tell me, Mike. What exactly *did* happen last night? You two were making a lot of noise."

"It's not what you think." He exclaimed, rubbing away the jelly stuck to his face.

"Uhu… so the reason your hand is bandaged up, isn't because Sydney likes to play rough?" Eric inclined his head towards the generously bandaged arm that Vaughn was trying to hide under the kitchen table.

"Nothing happened last night, Eric." He sat the donut down, and scratched his chin. "They're just scratch marks."

Eric's eyebrow rippled with curiosity. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." He spotted his friends wicked grin, and shook his head. "No!" His mouth opened in shock. "Not like that! Eric!"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, buddy." Winking, Eric stood from the table, and pinched the half eaten donut from Vaughn's plate. "Whatever happened last night, you two are definitely getting all hot and bothered over it anyway." He walked out the room, shouting to Sydney. "Sydney? We're going to get set up in the back room, ok?"

"Ok!" her muffled reply came from behind the bathroom door.

Vaughn rubbed his bandaged arm, rolling his eyes. Typical Eric Weiss.

****

"There's no wood left for the fire, Vaughn." Sydney had pointed to the non-existent pile of wood in the corner. There were only stray pieces of wood, no bigger than a match.

"Ok, I'll go get some more." He had moved to go outside, but Sydney cleared her throat, gesturing to his attire.

"I don't think you're in the right costume for chopping wood, Vaughn." She had walked past him, grinning as he looked down, and pulled the shawl around him tighter. "I'll go get the wood."

She then disappeared from the room, leaving Vaughn standing alone with the shawl wrapped around him, bare legs sticking out the bottom. He was shivering slightly from the cold, so decided to go find some pants. Before he could open his bedroom door, the sound of Sydney screaming denied him the right to put on pants.

****

He should have just went into the room, and put on his pants. Then it wouldn't have been as bad. Walking from the kitchen, he heard Eric pottering about in the back bedroom. "Hey, Eric? Did you bring the laptop?"

"Never go anywhere without it!" He poked his head round the door, grinning at Vaughn. "Is Sydney ready? We gotta get this show on the road."

"Yeah" she had just stepped out of the bathroom, a white towel wrapped around her, and wet hair stuck to her head. "Sorry, Vaughn. I borrowed your towel."

"uhu…" he couldn't take his eyes off her, mouth open, as she brushed past him into her bedroom. He could barely nod. Eric rolled his eyes, and disappeared behind the door again. "…no problem."

Sydney closed the door behind her, grinning from ear to ear. It was pretty obvious that he was checking her out as she walked past. Shame she'd acted like such a fool the night before.

****

"I'll go get the wood." If she'd known that those would be the last coherent words she'd utter, she'd have made them a little more poignant. Stepping outside wasn't the problem, it was the large shadow that faced her as she sauntered down the steps to the wood shed.

She hadn't been expecting it. If she had, she wouldn't have screamed so loudly. She wouldn't have jumped to the side either. But she did, and because of it, the shadow had blocked her path to the house.

****

She dressed quickly, knowing that time was of the essence. They were going to insert surveillance into Thomas Aitkens house, and they had to do it quickly. Within two minutes, she was ready.

"Ok, here's your earpiece, Sydney." Eric handed her the small device, which she inserted into her right ear. They tested the sound, and scrambled the signal. "You're going to be entering through the middle lower level window on the left side of the house. The house is alarmed, but we can override it from here. When you get the signal, enter through there, and follow the corridor through to the master bedroom." Eric pointed to the blueprints, showing the outline of the Aitkens house. Thanks to the CIA database, it was easy to get his hands on everything to do with Aitken – except his motive.

"Ok. Are we ready to move?" Vaughn packed the last of the equipment into Sydney's backpack, and handed it to her.

"Yeah." Sydney nodded, and strapped on the pack.

"Good luck."

"Thanks." She smiled at him, hoping he hadn't judged her ability as an Agent after that night. She left the room, switching on the ear piece. They had decided to go with the plan during the day – it was less obvious. She moved silently up the road, knowing there was a while to go before she would reach the target. Her thoughts wandered again to the night before.

****

"AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

She had screamed, a loud ear-splitting shriek. She could actually see the large shadow flinch in pain from it. Backing up, she searched blindly behind her for the axe normally sitting beside the shed. She couldn't find it.

****

"We're going to disable the alarms in ten seconds, Syd. Maintain radio silence until completion." Vaughn spoke to her quietly through the headset he was wearing. Both Eric and himself were wearing the black microphones. Vaughn paced behind him, waiting for the green light. He could hear Sydney's affirmative reply, and nodded to Eric. With one touch of a button, the alarms were silenced.

"Green light."

He waited patiently, as the connection went dead. He could only wait.

****

He had dashed from the bedroom door, through the short hallway, and out into the dark of the night. He could hear the scuffle of feet, and turned in that direction.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The scream that escaped from his throat was a high pitched, womanly squawk. The fright that accompanied his encounter, led him to jump towards Sydney, who had her back to the wood shed, eyes wide.

"Vaughn!" she whispered, don't move!

****

He had screamed like a girl. He had only screamed once before, and that was on his fifth birthday, when his parents bought him the latest toy for his Christmas. The shadow, sadly, wasn't the big red fire engine he'd asked for in his letter to Santa.

****

They were both pinned against the wood shed, the shadow creeping slowly towards them. Vaughn had dropped his shawl in the haste to scream like a girl, and jump out the way. Standing in his boxers, shivering more from the fright than the surrounding snow, he whispered to Sydney. "Syd? Is that…"

"Yeah." She whispered back. "ssh."

She finally felt the cold steel of the axe between her fingers, and slowly pulled it up from it's resting place behind her. Vaughn was oblivious, shaking uncontrollably.

She couldn't take her eyes from the advancing figure, but felt his shaking. He was pressed closely to the wood shed, and his shaking was causing snow to fall from the roof.

"Syd… I…"

"ssh."

"but…"

"ssh!"

Sydney pulled the axe quickly from her back, and swung towards the approaching figure. It moved backwards a little, giving them just enough room to make a run for the cabin. Sydney moved first, pulling Vaughn behind her.

****

Sydney was rapidly setting up small tapping devices on each phone in the house. She moved quickly, on light feet. The house was empty, as Marie had confessed to Sydney the day before that she was dragging Tom with her to the early morning church service.

In the cabin, a few miles away, Vaughn looked down at Eric, who was counting down the minutes till the alarm would be reactivated. Before he could say anything, the laptop sprung to life. A large black box appeared in the centre of the programme he was running, bold red letters stating 'signal intercepted'. He looked up at Vaughn, surprise in his eyes.

"Sydney?" He broke the silence. "Sydney, red light." There was no reply. Vaughn looked at Eric, uneasiness creeping into the room with them.

"I'm on my way back to the window."

"You don't have enough time, Syd. Get out of there now."

"I'm nearly..."

The radio went silent.

****

"Vaughn! Come ON!" She had reached the house and turned to see him lagging behind. She could see the large shadow turn, and make tracks towards the struggling Vaughn. He was barefooted, and the snow was slippery. Running precariously across the snow, he slid, and met the ground with a thud. The shadow was almost upon him, as he scrambled to right himself, and run again. The slash of skin was heard clearly from where Sydney had been standing.

Vaughn gave a small howl of pain, as he cradled his arm, and ran up the stairs to Sydney, who was waiting to close the door behind them. She closed it with a loud 'bang', just in time to see the shadow reach the steps.

"that was…" he was still shaking, and holding his arm. "… that was…"

"a grizzly bear." Nodding, she led him into the bathroom, and wrapped a towel around his arm to stem the flow of blood. "stay here. I'll go get a bandage." She knew the bear was still lurking around outside, but they were safe enough if they didn't open the door. She walked into the kitchen, and pulled a new bandage from the first aid kit beside the cookie jar. From the back room, she could hear the contented snore of Eric Weiss, sleeping oblivious to the bear outside.

Reaching the bathroom door, she chapped it lightly. Vaughn had his back to her, and was assessing the damage done to his arm. Her eyes widened, as she took in the view.

His black boxer shorts had been torn at the back, leaving her with a wide view of his naked rear. She dropped the bandage on the floor.

She couldn't move.

"I've always been frightened of…" Vaughn turned around to face Sydney, and witnessed her eyes wide, jaw at an overly wide angle. He stopped mid sentence. "Syd?"

"huh?" she continued to stare at the space where his rear had been positioned, unable to move her eyes. Vaughn walked towards her, arm beginning to bleed onto the carpet.

"you ok?" he kneeled down, and picked up the bandage. "Bears are really scary."

"…"

"I've always been frightened of them. Sorry if I screamed like a girl…"

"…"

"can you help me put this on?" he turned back to the mirror, back to Sydney again. She made a small squeak, and cleared her throat. "I think it's just a scratch, but I'd better get it covered up anyway." She tried to put out the burning imprint of his rear, ablaze in her head, and stepped into the bathroom.

"Ok." Unwrapping the towel from his arm, she tried to stop the blood from dripping on the floor. Vaughn stood obediently, as she unwound the bandage.

"It's kinda draughty in here, isn't it?"

She couldn't take any more. Scurrying from the bathroom, she went straight into her bedroom, closed the door, shoved her face in a pillow, and burst out laughing. She could hear Vaughn approach her door, and mumble to himself "I didn't think it was that girlish a scream…".

****

"Sydney?"

There was no answer. Vaughn tried again.


"Sydney are you there? Answer me!"

Eric shook his head. "Mike, looks like we've got company." He pointed to the window of the bedroom, where a black masked intruder was pointing a large gun in their direction.

"Sydney?" he whispered into the headset. "Sydney?"

{review, please! I know, I know. The Grizzly Bear thing was crap. Let me know what you think anyway!)