Chapter Three
The sudden, shrill ringing of his cellular phone broke Vaughn's thoughts. Without even glancing at the caller ID, he grabbed the phone and hit the 'talk' button.
"Vaughn," he answered as he always did, holding his breath and praying it was Sydney's voice on the other end.
"Michael? How are you doing today, Honey Bunches of Oats?"
He let out the breath he'd been holding reluctantly. Not Sydney. "Fine, Aunt Trish. How are you?"
"I'm just dandy today. Thanks for asking, Caboodles. Anyhoo, I'm just calling to make sure you remember that the family barbeque is in three weeks. You'll be there, Mikey?"
I sighed. "Yes I'll be there. And please don't call me Mikey."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Mikey. I guess you're too grown up now for that name. What are you, 25? 23?" Aunt Trish jabbered on.
"I'm 33, Aunt Trish."
"33! Well, I'll be! You know, that's the age I was when I met your uncle?"
Vaughn was so not in the mood for his insane aunt's crazy stories. "You were 19 when you met my uncle, Aunt Trish."
"Oh, so I was! I nearly forgot. Thank you, Mikey."
"Well, I'm at work, Aunt Trish. So I've really got to go. Nice talking to you. Goodbye." He hung up before he could hear his aunt's reply.
Hmm. Funny how Aunt Trish reminded him so much of Ms. Knox.
God damnit, Michael. Get South Glen South out of your mind! Think of anything else. Think of Sydney, even. As long as it doesn't include that high school.
And so, Vaughn thought of Sydney. She was, of course, on another mission in a foreign country. She was retrieving a photograph that contained evidence of a Rambaldi artifact hidden somewhere. This time, she was on an island. What was it called again? The name came to him in a flash… Bali. Sydney was in Bali. Oh, great. That was not the best topic to be thinking about.
FLASHBACK
"Oh, good morning Sam! And how are we doing today?" Ms. Knox exclaimed as she passed him in the hallway.
"I'm fine today, Carla. And you?" Vaughn answered.
"I'm perfect! But I forgot to take my hot flash medication today!" she informed him enthusiastically.
He blinked. "Ah."
"Well, have you heard about our new student?" Carla questioned him.
"No, I haven't. What's their name?"
"Josie Geller. Interesting girl." she giggled. "Says she grew up in Bali."
END FLASHBACK
Breaking into his trip down Memory Lane, the door opened again.
"Man, you're still in here? Well, at least I see you've given the coin a rest," Weiss observed.
Vaughn grinned sheepishly and held up his other hand. In it was the coin. "Maybe not."
"Come on, we can leave now, Balls of Steel. Let's get out of this joint and do something to take your mind off Bristow for five Goddamn minutes."
Vaughn stood up and glared at Weiss. "You know, because of you I did manage to stop thinking about her for a while. But that was only because you had to bring back all the memories of Josie!"
Weiss sighed heavily. "Man, Josie is old news. You let her go, remember? You had to. You know after she told you-"
"I know what she told me!" Vaughn snapped, interrupting his friend.
"Okay, okay. Sorry for bringing it up. Now let's get out of here and do something fun. You need to calm down."
Vaughn glanced regretfully at his cell phone. Weiss practically read his thoughts.
"Mike, she's fine. She can kick anyone's ass, you know that. She'll call you when she's back. Now let's go already."
Reluctantly, Vaughn put the phone in his pocket and followed Weiss out the door.
Two hours later they were sitting in bar stools at a club. Weiss was totally smashed and Vaughn…Vaughn was still staring at his first glass of beer. He hadn't taken a sip.
"Duuuude!! Come on! We did thish to have shome fun!" Weiss urged, his words slurred together.
Vaughn laughed at his friend and looked up at the stage. The band was decent, but he'd heard much better. A band called Ozomatli immediately came to mind. Where he had heard them, he couldn't quite remember… then, suddenly, he could.
FLASHBACK
"Josie!" he exclaimed at seeing her in the club. She was wearing a tight black dress with thin straps about the neck, embedded in a row of white rhinestones. Beautiful, in Vaughn's eyes.
He, on the other hand, was dressed more casually in his dark, baggy pants and black button down shirt. At seeing Josie, He quickly flung his arm around his partner, Courtney.
"Hi!" Josie answered as enthusiastically.
Vaughn turned to Courtney, telling her with his eyes to play along. "Laura, this is Josie. She's one of my students. Josie, this is Laura."
Courtney responded quickly. "His girlfriend."
"Nice to meet you," Josie muttered.
"What?" Courtney yelled over the music. "I'm sorry, I can't even think in here."
Courtney looked at Vaughn. "Sorry, I know you love this. I just hope you're gonna get it all out of your system before you move to New York," she turned back to Josie and said, "My firm has season tickets to the Met."
Damn, for a girl who just became a field agent a year ago, she sure is good at making up lies on the spot, Vaughn thought. It's clear we have Josie convinced.
"Oh, well…I love baseball!" Josie joked. Vaughn laughed along.
"Well, it's nice to meet you," Courtney told her.
Vaughn heard Josie's reply as he and his partner walked away. "Nice to meet you, too."
When they were out of sight, Vaughn took his arm off Courtney.
"What was that about?" she asked suspiciously.
"Well, we couldn't very well say that we were CIA agents on a mission, could we, 'Laura'?"
Courtney rolled her eyes. "Duh. I know why we made that little act. What I don't know is why you are flirting with your students."
"I was not flirting."
Courtney laughed. "Uh-huh."
END FLASHBACK