Chapter 4

           

Hours that ticked by on the florescent clock seemed to drag on for an eternity. Vaughn still sat in his booth with the still full first beer glass in front of him, wishing the vibrating techno music would quiet and the pulsating black lights would die so he could sleep.

Finally, Weiss decided he'd had enough. "Let'sh go, Mike."

Vaughn knew it would be completely idiotic to let his friend drive home, so he gave him a ride to his apartment and helped him inside. "You'd better thank God it's a Friday, buddy. You are going to feel like shit tomorrow."

"Uh….huh," Weiss answered. He collapsed back on his couch and was out.

Vaughn laughed quietly. "Have a good sleep, man."

He got into his car and turned the key. Pulling out of the street, he turned on the radio. The song screamed out of the speakers. It was a song from a few years ago and he couldn't quite remember the title.

"And when I feel like giving up
And my world is falling down
I show up at three a.m.
She's still up watching Vacation
And I see her pretty face
It takes me away
To a better place
And I know that everything
Know that everything
Know that everything
Everything's gonna be fine"

When the song was over, he listened for the title from the deejay.

"You have just heard the popular punk group Blink-182. That

was an older hit song, Josie. Coming up, U2, Sugar Ray, and Jimmy Eat World-"

            Click.  Vaughn turned off the radio. Was the world out to remind him?

            Ring…Ring…  

            His thoughts were once again broken into by the uplifting sound of his cell phone ringing. He grabbed it up quickly and punched in the 'talk' button. It had to be her this time. Who else would be calling at one in the morning?

            "Vaughn," he answered in a quick, flat tone.

            "I'm back," the two words were soft and melodic, like music in his ears.

            "Great!" he replied a little too enthusiastically. Calling his professional side back, he cleared his throat and tried again. "Um, how'd it go?"

            "Meet me at the usual place and I'll tell you everything," Sydney instructed quietly.

            "Right." He hung up the phone and put it down, then gripped the steering wheel of his car and swerved it in the complete opposite direction that he'd been going. He drove on the road towards the warehouse.

            During those brief few minutes to the meeting place, he'd been able to forget everything he'd been pondering. Josie, South Glen South, breaking protocol…everything. All he could think about was Sydney and being utterly overjoyed that she was back in one piece.

            Quietly, Vaughn entered the dank surroundings of the warehouse and sat himself down on the rickety wooden table to await Sydney's arrival. Five minutes later, he knew she was there. He sensed her before she showed herself, and he recognized her quick footsteps as they hurried in.

            "Hey," she greeted, plopping down on a crate and leaning her head against the grayish green wall.

            "Hey. How was…Bali?" he could barely force the word out of his lips.

            She smiled and answered, "Fine. Success. I got the fake photos for SD-6." Holding up a manila folder, she continued. "Here are the genuine ones for the CIA." She handed it to him and he took it slowly.

            "Congratulations on a good mission. Nice job."

            "Vaughn? What's wrong?" Sydney asked, her brown eyes filling with concern and locking with his troubled green ones.

            "Nothing. I just had a lot on my mind today," he told her truthfully.

            "Wanna talk about it?" she offered.

            Vaughn shook his head. "It's late. You should go home. You're probably exhausted."

            "If you need to spill, I've got time."

            How is it that someone can be so selfless? Vaughn wondered, but met her gaze anyway. Who could protest against those chocolate colored jewels?

            "Well…it's kind of complicated.  It's something that I should've gotten over and I told myself that I did, but I've known all along that I hadn't truly. Every day for the past four years it's come to my mind, and I've tried to ignore it. But all the same, it's there. It's this memory of a mission, a mission that turned into a lot more than I expected."

            He looked up at Sydney to see that her brown eyes were filled with confusion. Who wouldn't be confused after an explanation like that? He cleared my throat and tried again to begin the story.

            "I mean, I was just trying to do my job and things happened…a new part of my life happened," he continued, almost directly quoting Josie's newspaper article.

FLASHBACK

Vaughn sighed again as he picked up one of the hockey trophies sitting on the shelf in his apartment. He wrapped it tightly in a sheet of the most recent copy of the newspaper then packed it carefully into a box. He continued sadly, wondering how it was possible that he had failed. He had failed at everything he'd tried to accomplish on this mission.

He hadn't managed to take down the section of SD-6, which he knew to be called SD-8.

He hadn't gained anything valuable for the CIA at all.

He had never told Josie the truth about him as she had told the truth about her…or what he had thought was the truth at that time.

He had never gotten Josie.

He never would. He was returning to LA tomorrow. He had his job and needed to remember that. He couldn't stay in Chicago forever.

These thoughts all ran through his mind as he pulled all the magnets off his refrigerator and stuffed them into one last box. His apartment was empty. It was time to go back to Los Angeles with nothing to report to Devlin but failure.

Before he left, he glanced at the only remaining page of newspaper. The showcase story.

"Never Been Kissed, By Josie Geller," he read. Continuing through the article, he found himself slipping away, his mind spinning. He could almost here Josie's soft yet powerful voice speaking the words, directly to him.

"Someone once told me that to write well you have to write what you know. This is what I know: I am 25 years old and I have never truly kissed a guy. A geek to the core, most of my childhood years were spent doing extra homework I requested from the teacher.

"Then, at 17 it seemed as if my luck were about to change. The cutest guy asked me to the senior prom. But it turned out he invited me as a cruel joke, and I have never fully recovered. Yes, it is embarrassing to share this with the world, but it would be hard to explain what I learned and how I learned it without sharing this humiliating history…"

Vaughn read in awe, right down to the last section which he knew was going to face him with a world of trouble but couldn't help being glad about it.

"…A certain teacher was hurt on my path to self discovery, and although this article may serve as a step, it in no way makes up for what I did to him. To this man: you know who you are. I am so sorry. And I would like to add one more thing…"

There was a knock at the apartment door and Vaughn quickly put down the page to answer it.

"Movers!" a man called from outside.

"Coming." He opened the door then picked up the paper again as the movers began to remove the boxes from his apartment.

"…I think I am in love with you. And so, as an ending to this article and perhaps a beginning to the next chapter of my life, I, Josie Geller, will be at the championship baseball game where my friends the South Glen Rams are playing for the title. I will stand at the pitcher's mound for five minutes prior to the first pitch. If this man accepts my apology, I ask him to come kiss me for my first real kiss."

Vaughn put down the paper, speechless and completely unaware of anything around him. What was he going to do? What the hell was he going to do?

END FLASHBACK