Gone and Back Again
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Alias. They belong to ABC and J.J. Abrams. I own only the characters that have not appeared on Alias and none of my storylines will be used in upcoming episodes.
Spoilers: Maybe.
A/N: Well, I've finally thought up how Weiss and Jack rescue Vaughn. Honestly, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I first started writing this story. So in this chapter, we get more involved in the conversations of Dr. Jessica Kieran and Vaughn and we also get another conversation between Vaughn and Weiss (I love writing those!). Oh, and sorry the writing's so sloppy, I just thought this up and it's around four in the morning. And sorry for the dropped names!
A/N #2: I've been getting complaints of the single paragraphs with dialogue in it and let me just say: it pisses me off as much as it does you. It's never done that to me before (if you do not believe me, you can just check out my other fics) and I really don't get why it's doing this. I always try to be grammatically correct, so I do hit the enter key every time a new person starts talking. I'm going to try a new method of writing this story and if it works, I will change the other chapters with the way you and I both prefer them to be. I apologize for the inconvenience.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Good afternoon, Agent Vaughn," Jessica Kieran greeted as he walked through the door.
Vaughn smiled. "Hello, Dr. Kieran."
"How are you doing today?"
"I'm okay, I guess," he replied as he sat down on the sofa. It was his fifth meeting with Kieran and he was beginning to get used to the entire process.
"You guess?" she asked curiously, peering at him over her new spectacles.
He shrugged. "I don't know...I guess I'm just having a bad day today."
"Hmm," she murmured to herself, writing something down on her notepad. He rolled his eyes. He hated when she did that, which was quite often. She looked up at him after she was finished jotting her notes and smiled.
"Is there anything in particular you'd like to discuss today?" she asked politely. Vaughn resisted the urge to roll his eyes again. Every time he had met with her, she had asked the same question. He figured it would just be the first day or two that she would ask, but he had realized that she actually wanted to know if he had anything he wanted to concentrate on. But every time she asked, he always gave her the same answer: a shrug, a small shake of his head and a, "Not really."
She nodded. "Well, I know this is going to be a very sensitive subject..." Vaughn furrowed his eyebrows at that. She continued, "but I thought we could talk more about your experience in Taipei." Vaughn closed his eyes for a moment. He knew the three minutes he had spoken about it wouldn't be enough for a psychiatrist, but it didn't change the fact that he didn't want to relive it.
"Now, you've told me a little about what happened to you while you were in their possession, but I'm interested in how you escaped." Vaughn remained silent for a moment. He blinked back tears, although he didn't really know why he wanted to cry. He took in a deep breath and let it out. He gave her a short nod.
"Well," he started, slowly, "this is what I can recall..."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
FLASHBACK
He was strapped to the table. Again. His entire body was aching all over and he could barely stand to move. He was barely conscious, and in his mind, he was willing himself to close his eyes, but for some reason, he felt that he shouldn't. He didn't know what the date was...he had stopped keeping track days ago.
'Days,' he thought to himself, 'yeah, right. It feels like years.'
It was true, though. You know when you're pleading with the clock to get to the time you're favorite show is on, but it takes forever because you want it? It was just like that.except completely different. Vaughn flinched as a new, sudden pain shot through his ribs. He bit his lip to keep himself from crying out. He shut his eyes and begged himself to just allow a moment of sleep. Of course, his body and mind refused to comply. He heard the metal door open and his eyes flew open in utter terror.
'No, not again,' he yelled out in his mind. 'God, please, I can't take it anymore.'
"Michael," a taunting voice singed. Vaughn's breathing began to quicken and he blinked back his tears. He hadn't given Irina any of the answers she wanted, and although she could have simply destroyed him and captured someone else, he knew that this woman took great joy in handing out pure pain to the son of one of her victims. To have realized this during a torture session had to be worse than death.
"Michael, I know you're in pain," Irina said as she walked up next to him.
"You don't miss a thing," he replied bitterly.
She bent down. "You can end that pain right now," she whispered into his ear. "Just answer my questions."
The temptation was almost more than he could bear. He couldn't remember ever wanting something more than getting out of this horrible nightmare. But he had to stay strong.
"Kiss my ass, bitch," he retorted.
She huffed and quickly stood up. She looked him over for a moment before making a fist and slamming his stomach. His eyes widened and he screamed out loud as his already broken ribs received more damage. He tried to pull his legs up, but the straps made that impossible. Tears freely rolled down his face now and he knew he wouldn't be able to get them to stop for at least an hour or two.
"We're going to come back later," she said, calmly, "and give you some time to think."
He watched her angrily as she and her lackeys walked out the door and he yelled out in frustration. The action caused his dry throat to burn and his sore ribs continued to throb. Again, he closed his eyes and tried his best to sleep. He surprised himself this time, however, because for a few precious moments, he was able to forget all that was around him and fall into a comfortable dreamland...
The door opened again. Though, Vaughn kept his eyes closed this time. He didn't want to see her face again. He wanted to drown her voice out and stay in his newfound comfort zone. Then he felt the warm hand on his shoulder. It wasn't Irina, that much he knew, nor was it any of her emotionless and robotic followers. He slowly opened his eyes and found himself looking at...
"Eric?" he asked, throatily.
Weiss smiled. "Hey, buddy," he replied softly.
"What.what's going on?"
"We came to get you, Mike. We came to get you."
"Took you long enough," Vaughn said, only half-joking.
"Man, you look like crap."
"Thanks a lot."
"Agent Weiss, un-strap him and let's get him out of here," another voice ordered impatiently.
Vaughn moved his gaze away from Eric and was shocked to see Jack Bristow standing in the doorway, looking out into the hall and standing guard. He looked back at Eric with a very confused expression.
"Don't worry, Mike, everything will be alright," Weiss tried to comfort him. He quickly got to work at undoing all of the straps and he carefully helped Vaughn sit up. It took awhile, but as soon as he had done it, Weiss started on helping him stand. As soon as Vaughn's feet hit the ground, he stumbled. Eric reacted swiftly and helped him back up.
"I can't walk, Eric," Vaughn told his friend. "I can't do it...not now."
Eric nodded. "Okay, that's okay, Mike, I'll help you." He looked at Jack. "Can you help us out, here? Mike is too hurt to walk."
Jack gave him a curt nod and walked over. He swung one of Vaughn's arms over his shoulder and put his arm around his torso as Eric did the same. The three of them quickly exited the room and as they carried on down the empty corridor, Vaughn saw the two men responsible for the pain he was experiencing sprawled out on the ground, unconscious. He couldn't help but feel happy at the small retribution they had been punished with, but he diverted his attention from that to concentrate on walking. He stared at his feet and watched as the tiles on the ground passed as, step-by-step, they came closer to the door. Suddenly, he heard shouting. He felt Jack's support leave him and he staggered. He looked up and saw three guards running in their direction and reaching for their guns.
"Run!" Jack urged Weiss. Eric nodded and quickly readjusted his hold on Vaughn and ran toward the door, though he was upset that he had to cause his best friend to become more injured. They ran through the exit. Vaughn had expected to see blinding sunlight, but instead he was lucky enough to receive the night sky and moon. He looked straight ahead and made out a large, black van about twenty-five feet ahead. He inhaled a deep breath of air and gave it his all to forget his pain and run his hardest. He felt Eric's quick glances as he sped up and when they reached the van, he collapsed on the ground. Eric opened one of the car doors, bent down, helped Vaughn up, and cautiously eased him into the back seat. He shut the door and ran around the car, jumping into the driver's seat. He turned on the engine and raced toward the building they had just come out of. Vaughn didn't know what was going on because he refused to sit up and look out the window, but he could feel the tense vibe that Eric was exerting. They screeched to a stop and Vaughn heard the passenger door open and close and they took off again.
Jack twisted his body to look at the bruised, beaten man behind him. "Agent Vaughn, are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm sorry, Officer Bristow, but that's a stupid question," Weiss said, ignoring the glare Jack gave him.
Jack looked back at Vaughn. "Don't worry, we're going to the airport and we're going to be on a flight to L.A. as soon as we get there."
"Are we going to be in the cargo area?"
"We're going to have to be, especially while you're in this condition."
Vaughn gave a slight nod.
"Get some rest. It will take at least forty minutes to get to the plane."
'Rest,' Vaughn laughed to himself. 'That's the only thing I've been wanting since I've been in that damn room.'
But he was only trying to be helpful. Vaughn could tell that Jack was concerned, though he didn't show it...at least not in the way Eric was. Vaughn yawned and found that a soft and safe "bed" was much more easier to fall asleep on than metal...
END FLASHBACK
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"So, that's basically all I can remember of it. The next thing I knew, I was awake in a CIA hospital with Agent Weiss in a chair next to me."
Jessica gave him a sad and sympathetic nod. "It sounds horrible. I can only imagine how much worse it could have been."
Vaughn didn't reply. He felt tears welling up again. He sniffled and wiped his eyes.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly as he did so.
"Don't be sorry, Agent Vaughn. Everybody cries. You don't have to be embarrassed. I've seen much more men cry than you'd think." She paused. "Well, the session is officially over now."
Vaughn looked at his watch and raised his eyebrows. An hour and a half had gone by unusually quickly.
"If you'd like to leave, you can, but by all means, Agent Vaughn...if you'd like to stay and talk more, you're completely welcome to," she offered.
Vaughn considered this, but shook his head. "No, I think I'll leave, now. I don't think I can talk about this right now."
She nodded in understanding. "Okay, that's fine. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon, Agent Vaughn."
"Yeah, tomorrow afternoon," he echoed.
"Have a good day."
"You, too," he replied as he mindlessly stood up and left the office. He was walking back toward his own office when somebody grabbed his arm. He turned and found Weiss standing behind him.
"Hey, Mike, why don't we..." Eric started. Seeing Vaughn's troubled expression, he stopped. "Mike, is something wrong?"
Vaughn didn't answer. Eric's concern deepened.
"Come on, Mike, you know you can tell me."
"I have to go to my office," Vaughn said quietly. "I think I want to be alone."
He pulled out of Eric's hold and slowly trudged back to his office and shut the door. Weiss thought about leaving him alone like he wanted, but decided against it and walked into the room.
"Tell me what's wrong," he ordered, pulling up a chair.
Vaughn shook his head. "I don't want to, Eric. Can you please just leave me alone?"
"No, I can't just leave you alone," Weiss replied, slightly angered. "Don't you understand, Mike? You're my best friend, I'm not just going to forget about you when I know something's up. Now spit it out."
"I told Kieran what I remembered when you and Jack got me out of Taipei," Vaughn spilled.
Eric blinked. He hadn't expected to get Vaughn to say what was bothering him so easily.
'But this isn't the same Michael Vaughn,' he reminded himself.
"Oh," was all Eric could say.
Vaughn laughed. "Yeah, oh," he joked sarcastically. "You know, I didn't think it would be hard to talk about that. I mean, shouldn't I be happy to talk about how I got out of that hellhole?"
Eric thought about his answer before he replied. "I'd say that if you get upset when you talk about Taipei at all I wouldn't be surprised. You've taken quite a ride, Vaughn, you really have. I think it would be normal for you to be uneasy about talking about anything that has to do with what you've been through."
Vaughn pondered this. "Yeah, well...maybe it's just that I'm uncomfortable talking about it with someone I've known for only a week."
Eric nodded in agreement. "That's probably got something to do with it."
Vaughn sighed. "What were you going to ask me to do before?"
Eric raised an eyebrow, and then recognition washed over his face. "Oh, I was going to suggest that we go get wasted, but that's probably not a good idea right now."
"It's only three o' clock," Vaughn laughed. "You have to wait until at least nine."
Eric laughed with his friend. "That's a good point."
"You know what I watched on TV last night?" Vaughn asked, out of the blue.
"Uh," Eric started, surprised by the question, "no, I don't. What?"
"Charlie's Angels," Vaughn replied.
"Ohh," Eric smiled. "I love that movie."
Vaughn smiled as well. "Yeah, you gotta love Drew Barrymore."
"Actually, I prefer 'The Diaz,' myself," Weiss said.
Vaughn cocked his head at him. "The Diaz?"
"Hey, her cardboard cut-out lets me call her that," he said defensively.
Vaughn rolled his eyes. "Anyway," he continued, "it kind of reminded me of my life."
"That seems oddly true," Weiss agreed.
"Yeah, it's kind of...kind of like I'm Charlie, except the people I work with know what I look like, and Sydney is Natalie, Dylan, and Alex all rolled into one."
"Huh," Weiss grunted, realizing that he was right.
"I don't know," Vaughn shrugged, "it just felt really familiar while I was watching it."
"I'll bet," Weiss replied.
"Yeah..." Vaughn trailed off. "Hey, we should get back to work before someone complains."
"No doubt," Weiss said, standing up and stretching. "Hey, how about those beers tonight, huh?"
Vaughn let out a small laugh. "I don't think so."
"Oh, come on, you need to have a little fun in your life."
Vaughn smiled at Eric's persistence. "Not tonight, Weiss, not tonight. I'm just not up for it."
"Hey, your loss," Eric joked. "But I'll come by later, okay?"
"Yeah, sure," Vaughn replied.
"Alright, see you later," Eric said as he walked out the door.
Vaughn sighed and just sat in his chair for a moment. Now that he thought about it, maybe he should have agreed to Weiss's proposition. Getting drunk actually sounded good now.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Alias. They belong to ABC and J.J. Abrams. I own only the characters that have not appeared on Alias and none of my storylines will be used in upcoming episodes.
Spoilers: Maybe.
A/N: Well, I've finally thought up how Weiss and Jack rescue Vaughn. Honestly, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I first started writing this story. So in this chapter, we get more involved in the conversations of Dr. Jessica Kieran and Vaughn and we also get another conversation between Vaughn and Weiss (I love writing those!). Oh, and sorry the writing's so sloppy, I just thought this up and it's around four in the morning. And sorry for the dropped names!
A/N #2: I've been getting complaints of the single paragraphs with dialogue in it and let me just say: it pisses me off as much as it does you. It's never done that to me before (if you do not believe me, you can just check out my other fics) and I really don't get why it's doing this. I always try to be grammatically correct, so I do hit the enter key every time a new person starts talking. I'm going to try a new method of writing this story and if it works, I will change the other chapters with the way you and I both prefer them to be. I apologize for the inconvenience.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Good afternoon, Agent Vaughn," Jessica Kieran greeted as he walked through the door.
Vaughn smiled. "Hello, Dr. Kieran."
"How are you doing today?"
"I'm okay, I guess," he replied as he sat down on the sofa. It was his fifth meeting with Kieran and he was beginning to get used to the entire process.
"You guess?" she asked curiously, peering at him over her new spectacles.
He shrugged. "I don't know...I guess I'm just having a bad day today."
"Hmm," she murmured to herself, writing something down on her notepad. He rolled his eyes. He hated when she did that, which was quite often. She looked up at him after she was finished jotting her notes and smiled.
"Is there anything in particular you'd like to discuss today?" she asked politely. Vaughn resisted the urge to roll his eyes again. Every time he had met with her, she had asked the same question. He figured it would just be the first day or two that she would ask, but he had realized that she actually wanted to know if he had anything he wanted to concentrate on. But every time she asked, he always gave her the same answer: a shrug, a small shake of his head and a, "Not really."
She nodded. "Well, I know this is going to be a very sensitive subject..." Vaughn furrowed his eyebrows at that. She continued, "but I thought we could talk more about your experience in Taipei." Vaughn closed his eyes for a moment. He knew the three minutes he had spoken about it wouldn't be enough for a psychiatrist, but it didn't change the fact that he didn't want to relive it.
"Now, you've told me a little about what happened to you while you were in their possession, but I'm interested in how you escaped." Vaughn remained silent for a moment. He blinked back tears, although he didn't really know why he wanted to cry. He took in a deep breath and let it out. He gave her a short nod.
"Well," he started, slowly, "this is what I can recall..."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
FLASHBACK
He was strapped to the table. Again. His entire body was aching all over and he could barely stand to move. He was barely conscious, and in his mind, he was willing himself to close his eyes, but for some reason, he felt that he shouldn't. He didn't know what the date was...he had stopped keeping track days ago.
'Days,' he thought to himself, 'yeah, right. It feels like years.'
It was true, though. You know when you're pleading with the clock to get to the time you're favorite show is on, but it takes forever because you want it? It was just like that.except completely different. Vaughn flinched as a new, sudden pain shot through his ribs. He bit his lip to keep himself from crying out. He shut his eyes and begged himself to just allow a moment of sleep. Of course, his body and mind refused to comply. He heard the metal door open and his eyes flew open in utter terror.
'No, not again,' he yelled out in his mind. 'God, please, I can't take it anymore.'
"Michael," a taunting voice singed. Vaughn's breathing began to quicken and he blinked back his tears. He hadn't given Irina any of the answers she wanted, and although she could have simply destroyed him and captured someone else, he knew that this woman took great joy in handing out pure pain to the son of one of her victims. To have realized this during a torture session had to be worse than death.
"Michael, I know you're in pain," Irina said as she walked up next to him.
"You don't miss a thing," he replied bitterly.
She bent down. "You can end that pain right now," she whispered into his ear. "Just answer my questions."
The temptation was almost more than he could bear. He couldn't remember ever wanting something more than getting out of this horrible nightmare. But he had to stay strong.
"Kiss my ass, bitch," he retorted.
She huffed and quickly stood up. She looked him over for a moment before making a fist and slamming his stomach. His eyes widened and he screamed out loud as his already broken ribs received more damage. He tried to pull his legs up, but the straps made that impossible. Tears freely rolled down his face now and he knew he wouldn't be able to get them to stop for at least an hour or two.
"We're going to come back later," she said, calmly, "and give you some time to think."
He watched her angrily as she and her lackeys walked out the door and he yelled out in frustration. The action caused his dry throat to burn and his sore ribs continued to throb. Again, he closed his eyes and tried his best to sleep. He surprised himself this time, however, because for a few precious moments, he was able to forget all that was around him and fall into a comfortable dreamland...
The door opened again. Though, Vaughn kept his eyes closed this time. He didn't want to see her face again. He wanted to drown her voice out and stay in his newfound comfort zone. Then he felt the warm hand on his shoulder. It wasn't Irina, that much he knew, nor was it any of her emotionless and robotic followers. He slowly opened his eyes and found himself looking at...
"Eric?" he asked, throatily.
Weiss smiled. "Hey, buddy," he replied softly.
"What.what's going on?"
"We came to get you, Mike. We came to get you."
"Took you long enough," Vaughn said, only half-joking.
"Man, you look like crap."
"Thanks a lot."
"Agent Weiss, un-strap him and let's get him out of here," another voice ordered impatiently.
Vaughn moved his gaze away from Eric and was shocked to see Jack Bristow standing in the doorway, looking out into the hall and standing guard. He looked back at Eric with a very confused expression.
"Don't worry, Mike, everything will be alright," Weiss tried to comfort him. He quickly got to work at undoing all of the straps and he carefully helped Vaughn sit up. It took awhile, but as soon as he had done it, Weiss started on helping him stand. As soon as Vaughn's feet hit the ground, he stumbled. Eric reacted swiftly and helped him back up.
"I can't walk, Eric," Vaughn told his friend. "I can't do it...not now."
Eric nodded. "Okay, that's okay, Mike, I'll help you." He looked at Jack. "Can you help us out, here? Mike is too hurt to walk."
Jack gave him a curt nod and walked over. He swung one of Vaughn's arms over his shoulder and put his arm around his torso as Eric did the same. The three of them quickly exited the room and as they carried on down the empty corridor, Vaughn saw the two men responsible for the pain he was experiencing sprawled out on the ground, unconscious. He couldn't help but feel happy at the small retribution they had been punished with, but he diverted his attention from that to concentrate on walking. He stared at his feet and watched as the tiles on the ground passed as, step-by-step, they came closer to the door. Suddenly, he heard shouting. He felt Jack's support leave him and he staggered. He looked up and saw three guards running in their direction and reaching for their guns.
"Run!" Jack urged Weiss. Eric nodded and quickly readjusted his hold on Vaughn and ran toward the door, though he was upset that he had to cause his best friend to become more injured. They ran through the exit. Vaughn had expected to see blinding sunlight, but instead he was lucky enough to receive the night sky and moon. He looked straight ahead and made out a large, black van about twenty-five feet ahead. He inhaled a deep breath of air and gave it his all to forget his pain and run his hardest. He felt Eric's quick glances as he sped up and when they reached the van, he collapsed on the ground. Eric opened one of the car doors, bent down, helped Vaughn up, and cautiously eased him into the back seat. He shut the door and ran around the car, jumping into the driver's seat. He turned on the engine and raced toward the building they had just come out of. Vaughn didn't know what was going on because he refused to sit up and look out the window, but he could feel the tense vibe that Eric was exerting. They screeched to a stop and Vaughn heard the passenger door open and close and they took off again.
Jack twisted his body to look at the bruised, beaten man behind him. "Agent Vaughn, are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm sorry, Officer Bristow, but that's a stupid question," Weiss said, ignoring the glare Jack gave him.
Jack looked back at Vaughn. "Don't worry, we're going to the airport and we're going to be on a flight to L.A. as soon as we get there."
"Are we going to be in the cargo area?"
"We're going to have to be, especially while you're in this condition."
Vaughn gave a slight nod.
"Get some rest. It will take at least forty minutes to get to the plane."
'Rest,' Vaughn laughed to himself. 'That's the only thing I've been wanting since I've been in that damn room.'
But he was only trying to be helpful. Vaughn could tell that Jack was concerned, though he didn't show it...at least not in the way Eric was. Vaughn yawned and found that a soft and safe "bed" was much more easier to fall asleep on than metal...
END FLASHBACK
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"So, that's basically all I can remember of it. The next thing I knew, I was awake in a CIA hospital with Agent Weiss in a chair next to me."
Jessica gave him a sad and sympathetic nod. "It sounds horrible. I can only imagine how much worse it could have been."
Vaughn didn't reply. He felt tears welling up again. He sniffled and wiped his eyes.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly as he did so.
"Don't be sorry, Agent Vaughn. Everybody cries. You don't have to be embarrassed. I've seen much more men cry than you'd think." She paused. "Well, the session is officially over now."
Vaughn looked at his watch and raised his eyebrows. An hour and a half had gone by unusually quickly.
"If you'd like to leave, you can, but by all means, Agent Vaughn...if you'd like to stay and talk more, you're completely welcome to," she offered.
Vaughn considered this, but shook his head. "No, I think I'll leave, now. I don't think I can talk about this right now."
She nodded in understanding. "Okay, that's fine. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon, Agent Vaughn."
"Yeah, tomorrow afternoon," he echoed.
"Have a good day."
"You, too," he replied as he mindlessly stood up and left the office. He was walking back toward his own office when somebody grabbed his arm. He turned and found Weiss standing behind him.
"Hey, Mike, why don't we..." Eric started. Seeing Vaughn's troubled expression, he stopped. "Mike, is something wrong?"
Vaughn didn't answer. Eric's concern deepened.
"Come on, Mike, you know you can tell me."
"I have to go to my office," Vaughn said quietly. "I think I want to be alone."
He pulled out of Eric's hold and slowly trudged back to his office and shut the door. Weiss thought about leaving him alone like he wanted, but decided against it and walked into the room.
"Tell me what's wrong," he ordered, pulling up a chair.
Vaughn shook his head. "I don't want to, Eric. Can you please just leave me alone?"
"No, I can't just leave you alone," Weiss replied, slightly angered. "Don't you understand, Mike? You're my best friend, I'm not just going to forget about you when I know something's up. Now spit it out."
"I told Kieran what I remembered when you and Jack got me out of Taipei," Vaughn spilled.
Eric blinked. He hadn't expected to get Vaughn to say what was bothering him so easily.
'But this isn't the same Michael Vaughn,' he reminded himself.
"Oh," was all Eric could say.
Vaughn laughed. "Yeah, oh," he joked sarcastically. "You know, I didn't think it would be hard to talk about that. I mean, shouldn't I be happy to talk about how I got out of that hellhole?"
Eric thought about his answer before he replied. "I'd say that if you get upset when you talk about Taipei at all I wouldn't be surprised. You've taken quite a ride, Vaughn, you really have. I think it would be normal for you to be uneasy about talking about anything that has to do with what you've been through."
Vaughn pondered this. "Yeah, well...maybe it's just that I'm uncomfortable talking about it with someone I've known for only a week."
Eric nodded in agreement. "That's probably got something to do with it."
Vaughn sighed. "What were you going to ask me to do before?"
Eric raised an eyebrow, and then recognition washed over his face. "Oh, I was going to suggest that we go get wasted, but that's probably not a good idea right now."
"It's only three o' clock," Vaughn laughed. "You have to wait until at least nine."
Eric laughed with his friend. "That's a good point."
"You know what I watched on TV last night?" Vaughn asked, out of the blue.
"Uh," Eric started, surprised by the question, "no, I don't. What?"
"Charlie's Angels," Vaughn replied.
"Ohh," Eric smiled. "I love that movie."
Vaughn smiled as well. "Yeah, you gotta love Drew Barrymore."
"Actually, I prefer 'The Diaz,' myself," Weiss said.
Vaughn cocked his head at him. "The Diaz?"
"Hey, her cardboard cut-out lets me call her that," he said defensively.
Vaughn rolled his eyes. "Anyway," he continued, "it kind of reminded me of my life."
"That seems oddly true," Weiss agreed.
"Yeah, it's kind of...kind of like I'm Charlie, except the people I work with know what I look like, and Sydney is Natalie, Dylan, and Alex all rolled into one."
"Huh," Weiss grunted, realizing that he was right.
"I don't know," Vaughn shrugged, "it just felt really familiar while I was watching it."
"I'll bet," Weiss replied.
"Yeah..." Vaughn trailed off. "Hey, we should get back to work before someone complains."
"No doubt," Weiss said, standing up and stretching. "Hey, how about those beers tonight, huh?"
Vaughn let out a small laugh. "I don't think so."
"Oh, come on, you need to have a little fun in your life."
Vaughn smiled at Eric's persistence. "Not tonight, Weiss, not tonight. I'm just not up for it."
"Hey, your loss," Eric joked. "But I'll come by later, okay?"
"Yeah, sure," Vaughn replied.
"Alright, see you later," Eric said as he walked out the door.
Vaughn sighed and just sat in his chair for a moment. Now that he thought about it, maybe he should have agreed to Weiss's proposition. Getting drunk actually sounded good now.