A/N: First of all. I want to thank everyone who's been reviewing this story. You guys are great, and the reviews have meant so much to me! So thanks so much, from the bottom of my heart! J Oh, also, I made a little mistake in chap. 4. Vaughn says something like "I was just tried to do my job and things happened…" I watched NBK again and realized that's not actually in her article, it's in the intro of the movie. Just um forgive me for that and pretend it was right. Lol.

A/N 2: Ok, second note- I've finally given in to the instinct to make this story from Vaughn's POV. You have no idea how many time's I've been writing it and accidentally changed to writing in the first person by accident. I realized that this story could work a lot better like that so I decided to try it on this chap. Review and tell me how you like the change! J

Chapter Five- Vaughn's POV

"Vaughn?" Sydney waved her hand in front of my eyes. I blinked and snapped out of my memory. "Um, you were kind of in the middle of a sentence."

I pulled myself together. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. I lost my train of thought. Alright, where were we again?"

Sydney smiled a little. "You were assigned a mission…" she prompted.

"Right. Devlin assigned me a long term mission to receive information about a Chicago section of SD-6. Well, SD-8, technically. I was supposed to find their cover company, and then gather enough information to destroy it. During the year I was in Chicago, I was posing as an English teacher named Sam Coulson."

Sydney tried to stifle a giggle and I shot her a glance. "What?" I asked.

She immediately put on a straight face and answered, "Sorry. I was just trying to imagine you as an English teacher."

"Oh, think that's funny?" I played along. She smiled sweetly and nodded for me to continue.

"Everything was going pretty well. It was the end of April; all my seniors were excited about their prom and graduation… basic high school behavior. My mission was going pretty slowly but I was confident I could complete it with success. I'd gotten a few sources to question but I still hadn't found the cover."

"And something went wrong?" Sydney cut it.

"You could say that. One day a new girl was brought in to my class. Her name was Josie. She was a bit eccentric, but unbelievably smart for a seventeen year old. I actually questioned her age the first day I met her," I chuckled as I remembered that. "But she still claimed she was seventeen."

"So what was the problem?" Sydney asked, climbing onto a wooden crate.

"The problem started when I did something I really shouldn't have done. Something against the law. But, I mean, I was never a teacher before. I had no practice or experience for this type of thing…" I stumbled over the words.

"What, you stole instant coffee from the teacher's lounge?" Sydney joked in attempt to get me to spill.

I smiled but continued awkwardly. "Not quite that bad. I…I became attracted to this student. I didn't do anything to act on it, but the attraction was still there. I knew it was stupid. I could get fired or even put in jail for being with a student, so I just went on with innocent flirting and never did anything to blow my cover. I even told her that my CIA partner was my girlfriend to prove that I wouldn't make a move on her. But, uh, a few weeks later I couldn't stand it any longer and told her we broke up."

I stopped and took a minute to study Sydney's reaction. Hmm…was that jealousy I saw flickering in her brown eyes? Or was it just a trick of the light (or lack thereof.)

"So…what happened?" she asked. Was it just me or was her voice cracking?

Michael, give it up. She's not attracted to you. Just finish the story.

"Well… nothing, until prom night. I was pretty pissed off that I still hadn't solved this SD-8 case and I wasn't really thinking clearly. I decided that that night, at the prom, I would tell Josie everything. Well, everything I could tell her without her being killed. Everything was going the way I had planned. The three mega bitches of the school made prom court, and Josie was named prom queen. I asked her to dance with me. I was about to spill my guts when Josie suddenly yelled and broke from our dance. She stopped some popular jerk from spilling dog food all over a less… accepted girl. After that, she began to make a speech. I only stuck around for the first few words, which shocked me so much that I snuck outside before she finished."

Sydney, who seemed very into this now, brushed a hand through her silky chestnut hair and asked, "Why? What did she say?"

"I remember perfectly. '…I don't care about being your stupid prom queen. I'm 25 years old! I'm an undercover reporter for the Chicago Sun Times and I have been beating my brains out trying to impress you people!' I was so surprised… I finally knew what it was like to be on the other side. For it to be you being deceived, not you deceiving everyone else," I explained, and another memory played out clear in my head as I told it to Sydney.

FLASHBACK

            I sat on the stair outside the dance, a thousand thoughts rushing through my head. Suddenly, voices broke out through the piercing quiet. I knew automatically who one of them was.

            A male voice inquired, "Did you get the story?" Pause. "Josie, please tell me you got something on Coulson!"

            Coulson? Wasn't that me? 'Got something on Coulson?'  A story? She was doing a story on me!

            I stood, revealing myself to Josie and her co-worker, who pointed towards the parking lot and said "I'm just gonna go."

            Josie and I were left alone.

            "So…surprise," Josie said to me.

            I couldn't contain myself. "Surprise you were doing a story on me?"

            Her eager expression fell. "No, I couldn't… I mean…surprise I was hoping…"

            "What? You were hoping what, that I'd be happy? Why, because it turns out that all of the sudden I was allowed to be attracted to you?" I snapped, moving away.

            Josie moved closer and I could hear tears forming in her words. "You were attracted to me?"

I snapped back around. "God damnit, Josie. You set me up for a story!"

Josie looked devastated. "No, I- -"

"Just drop the act, ok? I mean, every word out of your mouth has been a complete lie. I don't know you at all."

Vaughn, stop. Shut up. SHUT UP! You've been lying too! Listen to yourself! You are doing the SAME THING!

 "If…if we could just spend some time together, you could get to know me again," Josie suggested.

I couldn't stop myself from my next action.  I began to walk away.

"Wait, please don't walk away!" Josie called desperately.

I turned my head and told her softly, "I just can't look at you the same way."

I felt her tearing blue eyes on me as I made the biggest mistake of my life.

I left her standing alone.

END FLASHBACK

           

            "I was such a hypocrite. I was the biggest hypocrite I'd ever come in contact with, and I couldn't believe that I'd been such an insensitive asshole."

            Sydney frowned slightly and shook her head. "You weren't. You were just surprised and hurt. It's easy to be irrational when you're shocked. I should know. I've been shocked plenty of times."

            "It's no excuse. But, I mean, I did make it up to her. See, she wrote this newspaper article. It ended with her..." I paused, not sure I wanted to approach this with Sydney, "her saying she loved me."

            I launched into the story about Josie wanting to share her first kiss with me on the baseball field and the five minute time limit that I almost hadn't made. I explained how I had gotten permission to stay in Chicago from Devlin by telling him I needed just a little more time to complete the mission when really I just wanted more time with Josie… I told everything. Everything, that is, until Sydney asked the question I'd been dreading.

            "So what happened to her?" she questioned quietly, the smallest wavering in her voice.

            I wasn't prepared to go into this with anyone, not even Sydney. "Um, nothing. I was going to find a way to get her to come back to L.A. with me, but… well, we went our separate ways."

            Sydney wasn't buying that. "Vaughn, I'm a spy. I think I can tell when you're lying to me."

            "Really, that's it. We realized that we weren't as in love as we thought," I persisted.

            Sydney sighed impatiently. "You expect me to believe that two people who went to such extreme lengths for each other; you jeopardizing the career you needed to uphold for your mission and her endangering both her and her boss's job by telling everything for you, waited a month and called it quits? Tell me the truth, Vaughn. I know you're hiding something."

            Looking down at the cement floor, the cool air swirling around me, I bit my lip and commented softly, "It's really late. We should go."

            "Vaughn- - "

            "We should go," I repeated, and pushed open the chain link gate. I was out into the night before Sydney had the chance to call after me.

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A/N: Hmm… getting a little suspicious, isn't it? Of course, we all knew there was something fishy going on from the first chapter, didn't we? What secret is Vaughn keeping? What really happened to Josie? Stick around and find out! Mwahahaha! ~~~ (my evil laugh. Lol)