Author's Note: Once again I'm asked for romance! Maybe I should just start with romance right at the start! Only joking people, I love that you send me advice! And don't worry, romance is being slowly blended into this story, so stay tuned! Oh, and this is shorter than I intended it to be, but I had to study for my exams, so I couldn't really write much.
Sydney tried valiantly to pick the game up where it had left off, but Vaughn and Francie were too distracted. Finally she just reached for the envelope and read the cards. Francie and Vaughn looked outraged.
"I received an anonymous tip?" Sydney quipped. Francie snorted, breaking the serious mood. Vaughn snickered, then grabbed the cards right out of Sydney's hands. He read the cards, then smiled righteously. Francie sighed in exasperation, then turned to Vaughn.
"So, what do you think he meant, that they're starting?" she asked. Vaughn looked thoughtful.
"Well, knowing Eric, it could be anything from the Superbowl to cleaning out his office," he said seriously. Sydney giggled, and Francie looked intrigued.
"So, what's he like?" she asked. Sydney looked at her meaningfully.
"You like him," she said, teasingly. Francie blushed, and looked at Vaughn, who pretended not to notice.
"Umm…I don't know. He's just…Eric. He has fish," he ventured. Then his eyes widened. "He'd better not forget to feed my dog!" Sydney glanced over at Vaughn, her face filled with barely contained laughter.
"He managed to get through CIA training all right, I think he can manage feeding a dog," she said. Vaughn nodded, but still looked worried.
"Anyway, you can always ring him," Francie suggested. Vaughn looked tempted, but then shook his head.
"He's going to ring the house line in an hour anyway, so he can talk to all of us at once," he said. Sydney looked pensive.
"How can we entertain ourselves for an hour?" she pondered.
"I can think of a few ways," Vaughn said suggestively. Francie slapped him, but Sydney just stared at him. It was strange, over the last few hours she'd realised just how little she'd known him. She shook herself, and turned to Vaughn.
"Let me rephrase that. How many PG-rated ways can we entertain ourselves for an hour?" she asked. Vaughn grinned.
"Truth or dare?" he suggested. Sydney glared at him.
"How many painkillers have you taken?" she asked. Vaughn looked dejected. Francie thought for a minute, then pulled a Scrabble box out from under the couch. Sydney and Vaughn looked at it dubiously, then Vaughn shrugged.
"What the hell," he said, pulling the lid off the box. Sydney shrugged, then helped flip the tiles over.
*
Francie leaned over the board and placed a C, O, E, L, A, T and A around the word ENTER.
"There," she said. "Coelenterata- phylum of diploblastic and radially symmetrical aquatic animals." Sydney just stared at her with her mouth hanging open.
"I learnt it in Biology," Francie said, then turned to Vaughn. "Your turn."
Vaughn studied the board and the tiles in front of him, then leaned over. He placed the letters G, E, and D around the word RUN.
"It's not as good as yours but…Gerund- the English -ing- form of a verb when in nominal function," he said, reaching for more tiles. Sydney frowned. She hadn't been counting on such tough competition. She frowned at her tiles, desperately running through her vocabulary for something. Finally she thought of a word and grinned.
"Paradigm- the set of all forms containing a particular element especially the set of all the inflected forms of a single root, stem or theme," she said, laying the tiles out around the word DIG. She frowned at the board.
"Why is it that at the start we all used simple words, and now we're not?" she asked. Vaughn grinned.
"Ahh, the art of misdirection- lead your opponent to underestimating you," he said in a reminiscent tone. Sydney giggled. Francie was just about to ley out her tiles when the phone rang. She jumped and spilt them on the board, then sighed. She'd forgotten her word- and it was a good one too! Sydney jumped up and hit the Speaker button.
"Hello?" she said in the direction of the phone. Weiss' staticky voice replied.
"Hey. How's it going up there?" he asked.
"Are you feeding my dog?" asked Vaughn. Weiss snorted.
"Yeah, I'm feeding your dog. Anything else?"
"We're wondering what the hell is going on down there, so just get to the point," said Vaughn, only half-joking.
"Okay. Here's what we're doing so pay attention." The three of them looked at each other, then sat up straighter.
"Shoot," said Vaughn.
"Strangely appropriate there, Michael. That's the first part- we had to shoot Sloane. Which can be used to our advantage if we're careful. Is Francie there?" Francie looked startled.
"Yeah, I'm here," she said, confused.
"Okay, we're setting Sloane up as a scapegoat, and you're essential. You listening?"
"Yes," said Francie.
"Sloane reported to the Alliance that he's discovered who the mole was, but didn't give them any names. We're going to set him up- while you were working undercover you noticed a lot of discrepancies. You confronted Sloane with them, and he denied it, which just raised your suspicions. It's going to be you who discovered that Sloane was the double, and you who has to report it to the Alliance. Do you think you can do that?" Francie took a deep breath, then said yes.
"Good. As for Sydney, you've been on allowed sick leave, but Sloane deliberately destroyed the paperwork in the attempt to frame you. Of course, you have no idea about that, as your father discovered the paperwork and reinstated your leave. When you return to work, you're not to know anything of what was going on because your father thought it would unduly stress you."
"Got it," said Sydney. There was a pause on the end of the line.
"Michael, you're on actual sick leave due to your hand," he said. Vaughn grinned.
"Well, that's easy to remember," he cracked. Weiss snorted, then quickly grew serious again.
"Francie, I'm coming up to get tomorrow evening so you make it to the Alliance meeting on time. That's about it, I'll call again tomorrow."
"Wait," said Sydney. Weiss waited patiently.
"Who was the one who…you know…shot Sloane?" she asked, dreading the answer. There was a long pause that did nothing to allay her fears. Finally Weiss' voice came back on over the line.
"I'm not obliged to say. I have to go." There was a click as the phone disconnected.
Sydney sat completely still, not really wanting to think about it. She had a terrible idea who Sloane's killer was, but she was desperately hoping it wasn't true. Vaughn reached out and laid his hand over hers for comfort. She looked up at him gratefully. Francie felt like she was intruding, so she stood up and walked to the kitchen.
"I'll just make some lunch," she said over her shoulder.
Author's Note: I know, it's kinda short and could be better, but you get that. I'm too lazy to re-write it, so if you have any complaints…send them to me in the form of a review! (I'm working on the assumption that if I ask enough times, I'll get more reviews…after all, some stories have over 300!)
Thank you to Loopylou, Stoko and everyone else who has been reviewing- you've been great guys! You really make my day J