Sydney caught herself before she actually fainted, but her legs were unsteady and she was grateful that the sofa was there to break her fall. The thick parchment-like paper fluttered from her fingertips as she leaned back against the sofa and covered her face with her hands, in the hopes that she could stop the room from spinning if she didn't have to look at it.
When Sydney opened her eyes again, it was through the gap she'd created between her index and middle fingers. She slowly took her hands away from her face when she realized that the room was no longer rotating on its axis. After taking several deep breaths, she finally felt ready to take stock of the situation. Sydney spied the wedding invitation on the coffee table where she had dropped it and picked it up again, almost hesitantly, as if not touching it would make it seem less real.
She re-read the words silently to herself. Marriage…Alice…Vaughn. Those three words glared mockingly at her. Vaughn was getting married to a woman he had broken up with six years ago? How? Why?
Sydney could hear her heart pounding in her chest as she sat there in utter disbelief. A chill suddenly ran through her even though it was a warm summer day and she found it difficult to get her mind to focus. All she could think about was that Vaughn was marrying someone who wasn't her. This can't be happening, Sydney kept saying to herself. It just can't be.
Her eyes kept returning to the cream-colored invitation with the pretty embossed rose on the front cover. Michael C. Vaughn. Sydney realized with a start that she didn't even know what his middle name was. And had he ever told her that his mother's name was Marguerite?
Alice Amanda Fairchild. Sydney had only seen her picture once or twice before Vaughn had gotten rid of it, but she remembered Alice's pretty golden girl looks, the blonde hair and the blue eyes and the slim figure. At the time, Sydney hadn't cared one way or the other who Alice was or what she meant to Vaughn, but she did remember feeling a bit put off by the superior-looking smile on Alice's face. I thought she looked like a snob, Sydney sneered to herself, oblivious to how catty she was being.
…ceremony at St. Margaret's…6:00 pm Saturday, June 18th followed by a dinner reception at Somerset Country Club…
Well, I can't be too off the mark if she's having her reception at some swank country club, Sydney fumed. She's probably some spoiled little rich girl who's never worked a day in her life--
The date of the wedding suddenly jumped out at her. June 18th. Sydney ran to her purse to get her day planner and fumbled through the book to get to the appropriate page. June 18th was this Saturday. What kind of person sends a wedding invitation four days before the ceremony?
Something wasn't right here. Sydney retrieved the outer envelope where she had dropped it on the floor and looked inside. That was odd. No reply card. Upon further examination, she also realized that her name and address were not hand-calligraphied; it looked as if it had been done on a laser printer in a highly stylized font. Was it proper wedding etiquette to run your invitations through a laser printer or was that considered tacky? Somehow she didn't think Country Club Alice would run the risk of looking so gauche.
It became obvious to Sydney that what she was looking at was not an invitation sent by either the bride or--she shuddered at the thought--the groom. No, this was from someone who wanted her to find out about the wedding. But who would do such a thing? And why?
Holding the pseudo-invitation in her hand was like receiving a slap in the face. It was made quite clear to her that Vaughn hadn't been sitting around watching life go by as a disinterested bystander. He was actually moving forward with his life. Unfortunately, in moving forward, he was moving away from her.
So what was she going to do about it? Was she going to let the love of her life marry another woman?
No, she would never let that happen. Sydney knew Vaughn couldn't love Alice the way he loved her. She knew that if he married Alice, he would be making a terrible mistake that he would regret for the rest of his life.
Maybe Alice was a perfectly nice person. Or maybe she wasn't. That didn't factor in to how Sydney knew the marriage was doomed.
What did factor in was what Sydney knew about his feelings for her. Although they'd never said the actual words to each other, she'd been aware of how he felt about her. Every gesture, every glance, every unspoken promise in his eyes. Vaughn loved her. He had been her protector and her champion and the one person in her life who had earned her complete faith and trust. Whenever she would go out on a mission, he was always the last person she wanted to say goodbye to and the first person she wanted to see when she returned.
He had sacrificed so much for her, both professionally and personally. It went without saying all the times he had stuck his neck out for her, standing up to his superiors in order to defend her or her actions. It was an indication of how much he believed in her and that made her love him all the more.
But aside from any loyalty he felt for her inside the job, she knew it had to be doubly tough on him outside of it. It couldn't have been easy for him to love a woman he had no chance of having as long as external forces kept them apart. Sydney would often wonder why he just didn't forget about her and go find a nice, normal woman with whom he could share his life. Someone upon whom he could outwardly shower love and affection and not have to worry that one kiss in public could get them killed.
The fact that he never did spoke volumes to her. He was making the statement that he was committed to her for however long it would take for them to be together. A man with such depth and intensity of feeling could not forget so quickly or so easily. He might think he was over Sydney and maybe he even wanted to be, but Vaughn's whirlwind courtship of his old girlfriend was just a misguided attempt at trying to put the ghosts in his past to rest and get on with his life.
However, Sydney knew it wouldn't work. She was in his blood just as he was in hers and no farce of a marriage was going to change that.
For the first time in a long time, Sydney knew exactly what she had to do. After tossing the invitation into her purse, she ran upstairs to pack a bag. Thanks to her years jet-setting across the globe, she was an old pro at knowing exactly what to pack for any occasion. Now, however, as she contemplated her closet, she had one question. What did one wear when one wanted to break up a wedding?
As she went through the house, locking windows and closing curtains, Sydney placed a call to her father on her cordless phone. He was currently in London for a few days, but she knew he would worry if he called and she wasn't home, so she left him a message, telling him where she was going and what she was going to do. No doubt he'd be tickled pink that she was displaying the rogue tendencies for which he was so famous.
Sydney gassed up her car before heading for the 101 Highway. Since it was a weekday, she didn't think she would encounter too much traffic and maybe there was a possibility that she could make the trip in a couple of hours.
During the drive down to L.A., Sydney wondered to herself how she was going to accomplish what she set out to do. Was she really thinking about crashing the wedding? The thought of running into the church just as Vaughn and Alice were saying their "I do's" was more laughable than anything else. Not that she wouldn't do it, of course, if it came to that, but there had to be another way. She still had four days before the wedding. All she needed was a plan.
Sydney arrived in the city during late afternoon just as the rush-hour traffic commenced. That was one thing she definitely didn't miss about living in L.A.
As Sydney exited the freeway, she was faced with the dilemma of where to go next. She still had a key to her old apartment, but she didn't want to face the awkward situation of having Francie come home to find her stretched out on the sofa. It was presumptuous of her to think she'd be welcome there, anyway.
Another possibility was her father's house. He was out of town, but he wouldn't object to her staying there. Sydney considered that option briefly before rejecting it. The thought of being by herself at a time like this didn't appeal to her. She didn't feel like being alone after finding out about Vaughn's wedding. Plus she needed a partner in crime with whom to strategize.
That left Will. Of course, Will would welcome her. And even though he might disapprove of her scheme to break up the wedding, he would also help her. That was just how he was.
She turned her car in the direction of Will's apartment, amazed that she was still able to negotiate the twists and turns with the practiced ease of someone who traveled the route every single day. I guess there are some things you can't forget, no matter how long you've been away, Sydney thought to herself.
Sydney knew Will would still be at work, but luckily, she had held on to the house key he had given her a few years before when he moved in to his new place. She let herself into the apartment, tossed her bags on the floor and then hit the refrigerator to get something to drink.
God, now I know why you were always eating when you came by our place, Sydney reflected as she stared at the meager contents of the refrigerator. If she subtracted the numerous take-out containers, the only other items being kept cold were a six-pack of beer, three bottles of water and a sickly-looking apple.
Sydney snagged one of the water bottles and then grabbed her purse. If she was going to be an uninvited houseguest, the least she could do was stock up on some groceries for the week.
She headed for the nearest supermarket to pick up a few sundry items as well as the makings for the cheese enchiladas she'd decided to make for dinner. A tossed salad would go well with her main course and maybe she'd make some Spanish rice if she could remember the way Francie had taught her how to do it. For dessert, Sydney chose that obvious comfort food called ice cream, adding a pint of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia to her shopping cart (for Will) along with a pint of Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake (for herself).
When Sydney got back to the apartment, she put away all of her groceries and then got started on dinner. After preparing the enchiladas and popping them into the oven, she tossed a bag of pre-made salad fixings into a wooden bowl and set it in the refrigerator to chill. The rice took a little more time, but once that was taken care of, all that was left was the pitcher of margaritas she would mix right before Will came home.
After checking the clock, Sydney decided that she had just enough time to take a shower before Will arrived. She ducked into the bathroom for a quick shower and came out feeling cleansed and refreshed. She was feeling a lot better about things now that she had gotten her butt in gear. She had every confidence in the world that she would find some way to make Vaughn forgive her.
Sydney got dressed in her favorite pair of jeans and a white camisole-like top that had little ties at the shoulders. She did a light make-up job and then ran a comb through her hair several times. Satisfied with her appearance, she gave one last shake of her head before opening the bathroom door and turning off the light.
As she stepped out of the bathroom into the hallway, Sydney saw something coming towards her out of the corner of her eye. But before she had time to react, she suddenly found herself being jumped from behind.
If Sydney thought her fighting skills would have diminished in the year she had been away from the CIA, she was gratified to find out that she couldn't have been further from the truth. The moment she was tackled, instinct took over and she reacted with all of the grace and finesse that a superspy such as herself would have. She made several quick jabs with her elbows into the gut of her assailant, who responded with a rather satisfying "Ooof!" and then she hooked her bare foot around his ankle to take him down, spinning away from his grasp as she did so. She stopped to catch her breath for just a moment and then turned around to face her attacker.
To be continued…
Author's Note: First off, I wanted to say that you guys give me the warm fuzzies with all the encouraging reviews. I hope the story continues to interest you all the way to the end.
Secondly, I know this chapter was way short compared to the last one, but I had to catch my breath. I'm still working on Chapter 4, but that one's turning out to be another fairly lengthy addition to the story.
I guess that's it except to say thanks again for the great feedback.
P.S. You all didn't really think Alice or Vaughn would invite Sydney to their wedding, did you? Hmmm, then again, maybe one of them did. You'll just have to stay tuned to find out. (grin)
See ya later!