Title: Through it All
Author: Secret Agent Girl (SAG)
'Ship: I'm sorry, do you not know me? PLEASE! S/V!!
Rating: Eh... We'll go with PG-13
A/N: We are soo far into AU land that the actual storylines have disappeared.
But hey… that's what fluff's all about ain't it?! One more after this and then
this story is completed. But don't fret… I have 3 more in this series before its completed.
Ch. 4 – After All, You Trained Me
Looking back on everything, she wondered how they had kept everyone in the dark for so long. They always met in places where no one would know who they were. They would meet in quiet secluded places, away from the hustle and bustle of their LA lives, and would just sit and talk for hours.
It amazed her just how happy she could be just sitting in a small café, at a back table, just looking into his bright green eyes.
Sitting there with her was some of the happiest times of his life. In the café, holding her hand, talking softly, hearing stories about her childhood, about her day, anything, the lives that they led melted away and Agents Bristow and Vaughn disappeared leaving only Sydney and Michael.
In one of these particular rendezvous', Sydney entered the small dimly lit café, almost an hour late, to find a panicked Vaughn, taping his fingers nervously. When she neared the table, she spread a nervous grin across her face and sat down. "Hey."
"Hey. Are you ok? I was just about to call your cell." She smiled at his concern.
"Yeah. Francie wouldn't be quiet, and then I had a tail. It took me 15 minutes to lose him. Then my dad called to tell me about a meeting he had with Devlin, though all he said was, I had a meeting with Devlin, which I know was completely inane, but hey, that's my dad." She paused and let out a sighing laugh. "Sorry I didn't call."
"No, Syd, it's ok. I'm just glad you're ok." He grasped her hand as he rose slightly from his seat to place a gentle kiss on her lips. "Hey." He smiled at her as he sat back down.
"Hi."
"So, what was Francie ragging on about?"
"Hmmm." She took a sip of his coffee. "She's convinced that I'm secretly seeing someone. Though I don't know where she gets that from." She smiled at him mischievously as she took another sip from his coffee.
"Is that good?" He joked as he watched her drink his coffee.
"Hmm." She laughed. "Sorry, long day." He nodded understandingly and called the waitress over.
"The usual?" The young teenaged waitress asked them as she neared the table. She loved to serve these two. She never knew their names but once a week or so they would meet here and just talk, plus it helped that they gave great tips.
"Please." Vaughn replied.
"Hmm, with a double chocolate chip, hot fudge sundae with M&M's." Sydney smiled. "Long day. I need chocolate." She winked at Vaughn as he tried to stifle a laugh.
The waitress wrote down their orders and walked away, a smile across her face at the interaction between her two favorite customers.
"So how was your day?" She mused as she got comfortable in the booth.
"Hmm, really long and boring, meetings, paper work, trying to avoid both Devlin and your father, the usual."
"Why were you avoiding my dad?" She asked. She knew why he was avoiding Devlin. Every time he saw Devlin, he was dragged into long meetings.
"I think he suspects that something is going on between you and me."
"Eh, he's just a worrier." She mused taking another sip of his coffee. "He wouldn't do anything about it, don't worry."
"You sure?" He was slightly apprehensive about Jack. Honestly, he was terrified of him when it came to matters concerning Sydney. Though Jack had one of the most stable heads in the business and was one of the most brilliant strategists he had ever met, when it came to his daughter, nothing was too extreme for Jack Bristow.
"I'm sure. Don't worry." She smiled as the waitress placed their meals in front of them, Sydney a grilled chicken sandwich and side salad, Vaughn a cheeseburger and fries.
Their conversation became mundane as they began to eat. Their conversations always happened this way. They avoided all CIA, SD-6 talk as much as they could. Talking about work was for the warehouse, not the café.
They neared the end of their meal, sandwiches gone, all that remained was a few of Vaughn's fries and Sydney would receive her sundae soon. Soon they would have to leave each other.
In a break in their conversation, Sydney's mind wandered across something that had happened earlier in the day. She reached across the table and grabbed one of his fries. "Something weird happened today."
"Weird? Like what, weird?"
She grabbed another fry. "Sloane. He was acting strange. Paranoid. I didn't want to say anything because these dinners aren't for work talk, but I had to say something. I needed to know if you knew if something was going on. I've been doing this for over 3 years now; I need to know if something is going to happen. I deserve to know."
He smiled slightly as she grabbed fry after fry as she spoke. Before he could speak, the waitress came for their plates and handed Sydney her sundae. When the waitress had left, Sydney took a bite of her sundae and then looked at Vaughn pointedly, waiting for him to speak.
"We knew that it would take a long time Syd…"
He was avoiding her question and they both knew it. "Michael…" She looked at him seriously.
"I'm serious, Syd. We agreed before that this whole thing was long term…"
"Vaughn." She used his last name with a streak of anger. She still called him Vaughn in the presence of others, but during their dinners and when they were alone, she only called him 'Vaughn' when she was angry or annoyed.
He took in a deep breath and after staring at the table for a moment, looked up to meet her gaze, her brown eyes baring deep into his green ones. "Ok. I don't want you to get worked up over this."
"A little late for that."
"The last Intel you gave us from you mission was huge."
"How huge?"
"End of SD-6, huge." Her eyes widened when he said that to her.
She dropped her spoon in her ice cream dish, "What? How? How?"
"It was Intel about the security operations that secure all the branches of the Alliance. With that, we're going to be able to cut their feed and storm in. The details are still being worked out. We want to make sure that we can cut all of their feed before we enter so that the members aren't tipped off before we enter. We want to catch them completely off guard." He stopped and looked at her, deeply into her eyes, trying to read the emotions that were running through them.
She could hardly believe it. If they were to cut the feed and storm the buildings, all of them, and succeeded, she would be out of this life. This was the one thing that she had been working towards for the last 3 years. "Are you….. Are you serious?" He nodded. "Did you know….Did you know this was what I was going after?" He took a moment before nodding slowly. "You knew! You knew and you didn't tell me?!" Her voice rose slightly as she began to get frustrated. "I can't believe it!"
"Sydney, I am begging you to keep your voice at a lower level."
"You're right, I'm sorry." She brought her voice back down and took another bite of her ice cream. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Devlin wanted to but I wouldn't let him." He held up his hand when she opened her mouth. "I didn't want to tell you because if something had gone wrong and you couldn't get the disks but Dixon got them instead, you would be miserable and depressed and would try to find away to get them from Sloane."
She knew his logic and understood. "Ok."
"OK? You're not mad a me?"
"No." She sighed. "I would have preferred to be told and it hurts me that you didn't but," she took a breath collecting herself. "When do they plan on putting 'the plan' into action?"
"Not for a few weeks. Two, I think."
"I…."
"No." He cut her off knowing what she was going to say. "I talked to your dad about all of this already. You're going to finish off this week, and then you are going on a three week vacation because your friend from high school is getting married in England and you're a bridesmaid."
"You're kidding, right?"
"No. Your dad and Devlin don't want you in the building when they enter. I don't want you to be in the building. Knowing what could happen to you in there….the answer is no. You can still be in town but not at the bank."
"Where are you going to be?"
"Outside in one of the surveillance vans."
"I want to be there with you."
"What? Sydney, no."
"Yes, Michael. I want to be there when they take Sloane away. I want to tell Marshall and Dixon that it's ok. But mainly, I want to see the look on Sloane's face when the entire Alliance is taken down. You owe me that much."
He knew there was no way he was going to win. She wanted to be there more than anything and he knew that if he didn't let her be where he knew she would be safe, she would find a way to get inside the building. "Ok." He relented, understanding her need to see it fall, her need to see it to believe it.
"Thank you Michael. I may have moved on with my life and have fallen in love with a man I know I can't live without, but nothing will make me happier than to see the people that killed Danny, be destroyed."
The next few weeks seemed to drag on for forever. Sydney finished out the week at SD-6 then packed a bag and moved into a CIA "safe house" apartment building. She spent most of her time being trekked in and out of the CIA JTF and Headquarters through a blacked out car that would enter the parking garage and wait for her.
When the day finally came to infiltrate SD-6, Sydney met her father and Vaughn along with Director Kendal in CIA headquarters. "I'll be in there first." Her father spoke with an all business attitude. "I'll be in a meeting with Sloane when the team moves in. I'll play the whole 'Arvin what's going on?' act until I know the CIA is in control and then I'll take Sloane into custody."
"Dad, be careful." Sydney cautioned as she caught his eye. Despite everything they had been through, the obvious riffs in their relationship, he was still her only link to the past and she still didn't want anything to happen to him.
"Don't worry. I'll be fine. I can take Sloane easily."
"You never know, Dad."
"Yes, well, thank you."
The day progressed and the group began to prepare for the days events. When Jack left for Credit Dauphine, Sydney entered Vaughn's vacant office and began to pace. It was only a matter of minutes before she would be entering the van with Vaughn and the rest of the team, to prepare for the final step.
He had watched her enter his office. Though the blinds were drawn, Vaughn could see Sydney's silhouette as she paced across his office. More than anything he wanted to go into his office and hold her, to stop her pain. The only thing keeping him from doing so was the voice that constantly rang through his head singing "PROTOCOL". However there was another voice that rang back reminding him that if everything went according to plan, he could finally hold her in public without meeting in a no-name café and watching for tails. He could meet Francie, and introduce Sydney to his mother. His hand reached into his pocket and clasped around a small box inside. "Soon" he told himself as he went to tell her it was time to leave.
She couldn't speak when he had entered the office and informed her that they were preparing to leave. So instead she nodded and placing her arms across her chest, hugging herself, she walked past him out of his office and into the parking garage and the van that waited for them.
The next half hour seemed to pass on fast forward. Sydney could barely remember entering the van, when all of the sudden she was staring at the screen, the security feed being cut and the CIA team had just entered the building. She shook slightly as she listened to the team enter SD-6 and yelled for everyone to get on their knees, hands behind their heads. With only audio, Sydney was relieved to find that no gun shots had been fired.
She glanced over at Vaughn apprehensively and he quickly switched to the comm. link to her father was wearing. "Jack. It's Vaughn. If you can hear me, ask Sloane for the time."
Sydney could hear a soft muttered shuffle come from the head set she was wearing and she was about to panic when she heard her father's voice. "Arvin, do you have the time? My watch seems to have stopped." She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, relieved.
"Good. Ok, Jack, T minus 30 seconds before Sloane should realize something is wrong." Vaughn spoke from beside her.
Silently in her head Sydney began to count the seconds. After 30 she could hear Sloane's frantic questions. After 45 she could hear shouts from the CIA men. After 70 she heard Sloane ask Jack what the hell he thought he was doing and after 90 she heard a muffled thump as her father knocked Sloane unconscious. A single tear rolled down her cheek and she slid the headphones off her head.
It was a good 20 seconds before Vaughn realized Sydney wasn't wearing her headset anymore but instead was sitting back, arms folded across her chest, one hand covering her mouth as tears streamed down her face. "Syd? Sydney, what's wrong?"
"It's over."
"Yeah, it is." He understood and just sat there with her, his arm resting on her shoulder, slowly moving up and down, calming her.
After a few moments, Vaughn saw the CIA begin to move people out of the building; the first to exit was Dixon and Marshall. He was about to tell Sydney, but she was already getting up and exiting the van to see her friends.
A steady stream of people exited the building for well over an hour. Most going quietly and without restraints, the only one in handcuffs were those who knew what SD-6 really was.
After an hour and 15 minutes, Jack emerged from the building, an angry Sloane being shoved along in front of him. Sydney walked to him and stared him straight in the eyes. "You'll go down for this, Sydney."
She could have laughed if she wasn't so drained. "That's an empty threat coming from someone on his way to jail. You should have known I would figure it out sooner or later. After all, you trained me." Her words cut deep and she knew it.
Sloane reared back and spat in Sydney's face. Jack was about to retaliate, when Sydney brushed her father's hand away. After wiping the spit from her face, she struck Sloane, hard, across the face. "That is for Danny." She hit him again. "That is for all the people you lied to." Once more. "That is for all the lives you destroyed including Emily's." She gripped his shoulders and swiftly brought her knee to his groin. "And that is for me and the life you deprived me of."
She watched as her father forcefully threw Sloane into a van, not caring about whether or not the other man was being injured in the process. He walked back to her and she pulled him to her, hugging him tightly. She smiled at him as they broke apart and watched as her father turned and entered the van, accompanying his once friend to the CIA.
She watched as the van slowly took off, her eyes never leaving it as it became a small dot down the busy LA streets. Looking around her she realized that everyone had left. Or, rather, almost everyone. Standing by a van, his tie loosened, Vaughn stood watching her. She slowly began to walk towards him, breaking into a smile as she quickened her pace until it was a full fledged run. She reached the van and stopped just short of his arms, looking into his eyes for a moment before plunging into his embrace.
After what seemed like an eternity, she pulled away just far enough so that she could meet his eyes, her smile never leaving her face. "I told you I'd be waiting here." He smiled at her reminding of her of the promise he made the first time they had kissed.
She grasped his hand and smiled. "Come on."
"Where are we going?"
"To my place. I think it's time Francie met the man I love."