"Oh, my God!" Sydney cried out.
"Hey, Syd, nice to see you again, too." Will grimaced from his reclining position on the floor. Having had the wind thoroughly knocked out of him, he was struggling to sit up.
"Oh, Will, I'm so sorry!" Sydney apologized profusely, rushing to help him up.
He gratefully leaned on her. "What do you make of it that the first time I actually get to show off my smooth CIA-taught defensive skills, I run into someone who takes me down in one fell swoop?" He wisecracked, wincing as Sydney led him over to the couch.
Sydney couldn't help but grin. Same old self-deprecating Will. "You should know better than to mess with the Master." She kidded him. "Do you want some water? Or maybe some ice?" She asked solicitously.
"The water would be great, thanks." Will nodded as he rubbed his tender stomach.
Sydney went into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator, stopping for a second to check on the enchiladas, which were bubbling over from the cheese she had sprinkled generously on top. Gratified to discover that Will actually owned an oven mitt, she took the enchiladas out of the oven to cool and then went back out into the living room.
"Here you go." She handed the bottle to Will, who accepted it gladly. She watched as he unscrewed the cap and took a long drink of water. "Feeling better?"
"I think I'll live." He said with a weak smile. "I'm sorry I jumped you, but I heard someone in the bathroom--"
"--and you were just itching to play James Bond, I know." Sydney said teasingly.
"Well, you know I don't get out much." Will deadpanned.
"Will Tippin, the CIA's most secret weapon." Sydney agreed and they exchanged grins.
An awkward silence fell between them. "So what are you doing here?" He finally asked, his curiosity apparent.
"Do you mean in L.A. or in your apartment?" She asked as a stalling tactic.
"Both, I guess." Will shrugged. "From everything I've heard out of you the past year, I got the impression that you never wanted to come back here."
"There didn't seem to be any reason to want to come back." Sydney replied enigmatically. "But that's changed."
Will raised an eyebrow. "Curiouser and curiouser." He drawled.
She gave him a little smile. "Um, Will, before we go any further, I have a favor to ask." Sydney looked hesitant. "I know I'm probably out of the running for Most Gracious Houseguest considering that I just pummeled you into submission, but is it all right if I crash here for a few days?" She asked, rather sheepishly.
Will's face clouded over for the briefest of moments, but it passed so quickly, Sydney thought that perhaps she had imagined it. "Of course, Syd. You know you're always welcome."
"Thanks, Will." She said gratefully. "I know it's terrible of me to just drop in without calling first--"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll never forgive you for it." Will cut her off. "Do you hear me complaining? We haven't seen each other since before Christmas, for Pete's sake."
"I know." She acknowledged, a bit shame-faced. "I haven't been much of a friend to you this past year, have I?"
"You've had your own issues to deal with." He shrugged. "I understand."
"You're one of the few people who do." She said softly.
Will suddenly sniffed the air appreciatively. "Hey, did you make dinner?"
"It was the least I could do for barging in on you unannounced." She smiled. "Come on, go sit down and I'll bring the food out."
Since Will was a bachelor who was rarely treated to a home-cooked meal, he had several servings of everything before any serious conversation could be had. Sydney didn't mind, however. It had been ages since she'd been able to completely be herself around another person who wasn't her father. She was always so conscious of keeping her cards close to the vest that she could never be entirely open or honest with people who didn't know all of her secrets. It felt good to finally be able to laugh and joke with an old and trusted friend.
They were still sitting at the dining table after dinner, polishing off the last of the margaritas in between bites of ice cream. It used to drive Sydney crazy that Will liked to eat his ice cream directly from the carton and whenever she used to berate him for it, he would retort that there was no sense in dirtying another dish when it already came in its own perfect serving container. She just chalked up his slightly off-putting behavior to the fact that he lived alone and therefore never needed to worry that someone else might object to sharing his saliva with them.
But now that she had gotten used to living by herself, she no longer found the practice so disgusting. No dirty dishes meant no dishes to wash and she hated washing dishes. It was all good.
"You know, you look great, Syd." Will complimented her with a smile. "I guess living at the beach must agree with you."
"The sound of the waves puts me right to sleep every night." She grinned. "In the beginning, I thought I might feel a little isolated, but I actually kind of like the solitude now. I like the fact that I no longer have to worry about people hiding in the bushes always watching me."
"Yeah, you went through too many years of that." He nodded.
"So how are you doing?" Sydney asked him after a short pause. "Is work going okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, actually it is." Will replied, his expression turning thoughtful. "It's funny how things work out, Syd. Six years ago I was cursing the fact that I could no longer do the one thing that mattered the most to me and now I find I don't miss being a reporter much at all."
"Really?" She looked slightly skeptical.
Will gave her a rueful smile. "Okay, well, sometimes I miss it." He admitted. "Especially when I read the crap that paper puts out and I know I could do it so much better."
"Of course you could." Sydney said comfortingly.
"But, anyway, that's ancient history, isn't it?" He gave a careless shrug. That part of his life was long over and there was no sense in dwelling on it, even if it still hurt a little bit. "So you're out for the summer, right? School's over?"
"Yeah, the term ended last Friday." She nodded. "It's so weird to have all this time stretched out in front of me with nothing to do. When I was still with the Agency, I never had any time to relax."
"Well, enjoy it, Syd." Will encouraged her. "You've certainly earned it."
"I guess." An overwhelming feeling of sadness suddenly overtook her and she jumped up out of her chair. Will was a bit startled as he watched Sydney pick up her melting ice cream carton and put it back in the freezer. His eyes never strayed as they followed her from the refrigerator to the sink and back to the table.
"Syd, don't you think it's time you told me why you're here?" He asked in a gentle voice.
Sydney met his gaze. "All of a sudden, I'm not so sure." She looked troubled. "I thought I knew when I left Santa Barbara this afternoon, but now I don't know if it was the right thing to do. Maybe my being here will just make things worse."
"What things, Sydney?" He asked concernedly. Then he saw the look in her eyes. "Oh, God, Syd, how did you find out?" Will blurted out.
"How did I find out about what, Will?" She countered. Had Will known about Vaughn's wedding? Why hadn't he told her sooner?
Will suddenly looked fidgety. "I don't how much you know, but there's something going down this weekend that I never told you anything about." He confessed.
"Sounds like something pretty dire." She commented neutrally.
"I guess it depends on your point of view." Will said, looking extremely distressed.
Sydney took pity on him. "Will, just spill it." She advised him, but not unkindly. It wasn't his fault that he had to be the bearer of bad news. "It's obviously eating you up inside not to tell me."
He let out a long sigh before replying. "It's about Mike." Will shot her a sheepish look. "Sorry, I know he's always been Vaughn to you."
Sydney felt her cheeks redden. "What's going on with him?"
"He's…getting married this weekend." Will looked miserable. She could see it in his eyes that he wasn't the one who had sent her the fake wedding invitation. He wouldn't have had such a hard time telling her about it if he thought she already knew. "Sydney, please don't be mad at me for not telling you sooner. Since you never wanted to talk about him, I assumed you didn't care to know." He looked at her imploringly.
"Will, it's okay." She laid her hand over his to reassure him. "Wow, Vaughn's getting married." Even though she had known about it for several hours now, actually hearing it being said out loud made her feel choked up.
"Yeah, on Saturday." Will informed her. "How do you…feel about that?" He asked tentatively. He could see the tears forming in Sydney's eyes and was desperate to keep them from falling. It always pained him to see her cry.
"If he's happy, I'm happy." She tried to smile, but the tone of her voice belied her words.
Will moved to comfort her, taking her hands in his. It alarmed him that they felt like ice and he immediately sought to warm her up. "Syd, come on, let's go sit on the couch where we can be more comfortable." She let him lead her into the living room, where she plopped onto the sofa rather forlornly. He sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. They sat quietly for a few moments as Will wondered just how exactly he could console her.
"Syd, I know when you left L.A. last year, you sort of left things…unfinished with him." He began awkwardly.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that." She admitted. "But by the looks of it, it didn't take him long to forget about me." She added, a bit reproachfully.
"It wasn't like that, Sydney." Will shook his head. "You don't know--"
"What I know is that Vaughn's managed to get himself engaged and about to be married in a little less than a year's time." She interrupted him. "It's quite obvious that he's a very fast worker."
"Not so fast." He corrected her. "The bride-to-be is actually someone he already knew."
"Oh?" Sydney feigned innocence.
"Yeah." Will nodded. "Did Mike ever mention someone named Alice to you?"
"He was dating Alice when we met." She told him. "But he broke up with her about two months later." When he fell in love with me, she added silently.
"Oh, well, they got back together." He said lamely.
"Obviously." Sydney unconsciously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and then plastered a big fake smile on her face. "Well, I think it's great that he's found someone. He deserves some joy and happiness in his life after dealing with me for so many years."
"I highly doubt that Mike thinks dealing with you was such a
raw deal." Will said quietly. "Syd, you meant a lot to him."
Will's use of the past tense wounded her. "But apparently, not enough." She
said with a shake of her head. Sydney suddenly squeezed Will's hand. "Hey,
don't be so upset for me. Vaughn and I just weren't meant to be. It doesn't
mean I won't find someone eventually."
Will gave her a surprised look. "I didn't realize you were even looking." He had long ago resolved his feelings for Sydney, but even now, Will still felt a little twinge in his heart. It had taken him years to finally come to grips with the fact that she would never have the same depth of love for him that he had for her. It wasn't just that there always seemed to be another man ahead of him in line; it was also that he didn't inspire the same kind of all-consuming passion in her that she felt for Vaughn or Danny or even Noah, to a lesser degree. It had been hard to accept at first, but Will realized it was the only thing he could do if he wanted Sydney to remain a part of his life. Being friends was better than being nothing at all.
"Well, I wasn't exactly trolling the bars every night, but I did go out on a few dates with one of the Spanish teachers at school." Sydney made a face at Will. "His name is Mark Ramos. His family originally came from Mexico, but he was born in California and he's an absolute whiz at languages. He's fluent in Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese."
She gave a laugh. "Of course, he was knocked for a loop when I was able to converse with him in each language and he was absolutely floored when I demonstrated my abilities in so many others." She said modestly, with a straight face.
"Were you showing off for him, Syd?" Will asked teasingly. "How did you explain that, anyway?"
"I told him I was an army brat and that my father moved us around a lot when I was a kid." She confessed. "Mark's a nice guy, but it was never anything even remotely serious."
"Too bad."
"So what about you?" She inquired. "How are things with Samantha?"
Will's lips twisted ruefully. "We just broke up two weeks ago."
"Oh, Will, I'm so sorry." Sydney said sympathetically. "I thought that once you passed the six-month mark that things were going okay."
"Yeah, well, they were and then they weren't." He said with a shrug. "And of course, you know me, Mr. Impeccable Timing. It's just like me, don't you think, to have all these wedding functions to attend this weekend and I don't have a date to take to any of them?" Will realized too late that his babbling had let loose too much information. Damn it, when would he learn to keep his trap shut?
Sydney gave him a flabbergasted look. "You've been invited to the wedding?" She asked incredulously.
Will hesitated before speaking. "Actually, I'm in the wedding." He said clumsily. "As an usher."
Her mouth dropped open. "I didn't realize that you and Vaughn had gotten so close." She said slowly.
"Well, you know, he and I still had to work together and with you not around, we no longer had anything to create any tension between us." He gulped nervously. "Mike and I actually discovered we have a lot in common." Being in love with the same woman notwithstanding.
"Really." She was still beyond floored by his bombshell.
"Well, you wanted us to be friends, didn't you, Syd?" He prodded her. "It took awhile, but it finally happened."
"I'm glad for you." Sydney gave him a sincere smile. "I always thought that the two of you would like each other."
"Yeah, we usually hang out about two or three times a week, although that's been cut down ever since Mike got engaged." He said. "Sometimes he and Weiss and I will go out for a beer after work or meet up at Staples to see a game. You know he's really into hockey, don't you?"
"Yeah, I know that." She said quietly.
"Hey, and I even took him by the restaurant to introduce him to Francie." Will revealed. "You were right that she would like him. They really hit it off."
"What'd I tell you?" Her voice was hollow. For some reason, Sydney didn't like finding out that all of her friends were bonding when she wasn't around to see it. It made her feel as if it was a good thing that she was no longer a part of their lives. Like they were happier and friendlier and more at ease with her not in the picture to keep them all apart.
"Do you know she's even doing the catering for the wedding?"
Oh, God, this was too much. "Wow, I guess life really did go on without me." Sydney said wistfully.
Will suddenly realized that Sydney's posture had become tense and rigid. "Oh, but, Syd, I hope you realize that's it not the same without you around." He said hastily. "We all miss you, even though some of us don't want to admit it." He added, referring to both Francie and Vaughn.
"Well, I'm not so sure they'd like you speaking for them, but at least I know you're sincere." She gave him a grateful look. "So would I be correct in assuming that Eric is playing best man?"
"Of course." Will nodded and then shot her a grin. "You would not believe the wild bachelor party he threw last weekend." He cackled just thinking about it.
"Oh, I can just imagine what Eric would come up with." She smirked.
"Yeah, well, take what you might imagine and multiply it by a hundred." Will rolled his eyes.
"I can't believe what I'm hearing, Will Tippin." Sydney pretended to be scandalized. "And to think that all of the guys at the party are the very same men who have been entrusted with the sacred duty of protecting our country." She drawled.
"Hey, we CIA types may look stuffy, but we know how to have
fun." He puffed out his chest. "And another thing, just be thankful that we all
know how to keep a secret because if Alice ever found out what went on, we'd be
preparing for World War III this very minute."
Sydney hid a smile at Will's slightly pompous-sounding 'we CIA types.' "Alice would throw a fit over the goings-on at a bachelor party?" She raised an eyebrow. "What is she, super-uptight or something?"
"Try 'or something.'" Will's mouth quirked. "You know, for the life of me, I can't figure out why the hell those two hooked up again."
"You don't think they're compatible?" She asked lightly.
"Well, to hear Alice tell it, they're like the perfect couple absolutely made for each other, but I just don't see it."
"How do they act when they're together?" Sydney was curious.
"Oh, she's all sweetness and light." Will made a face. "He's just sort of by her side, if you know what I mean. Like a well-trained dog, who doesn't move until she tells him to."
"Will!" Sydney's tone was scolding. "You're bordering dangerously close to insulting a man who's supposed to be your friend." She admonished with slight disapproval in her voice.
"I don't mean to be, but I can't help it if it's the truth, can I?" He retorted with a helpless shrug.
"But Vaughn's not like that." She protested. "I mean, I never saw him as a life-of-the-party, gregarious type, but he has a wonderful personality. Funny and sweet and considerate--" Sydney suddenly shut up since expounding on Vaughn's virtues probably wasn't building her case that she was over him.
"Hey, you don't have to sell me on him." Will held his hands up. "Mike's a great guy when he's not around her." He gave her a pointed look. "But when he is, she turns him into milquetoast."
"She doesn't sound as if she brings out the best in him." Sydney commented worriedly. "But if he didn't want to be with her, why would he propose to her?" She asked, half to Will and half to herself.
Will was having an internal debate inside his head. Did he want to open old wounds? He knew Sydney was probably devastated to find out about Vaughn's impending marriage, but if he were to tell her that she had inadvertently set the whole ball in motion, he wasn't quite sure how she would react.
"Will, what does that look on your face mean?" Will gulped when he realized Sydney had been watching him the entire time he'd been mulling over his options.
Now he had no choice. "Syd, the way they got back together, it wasn't your typical boy-reunites-with-girl, boy-falls-back-in-love-with-girl, boy-proposes-marriage-to-girl." He admitted in defeat. "There were extenuating circumstances."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that a lot of things had to happen for them to hook back up again, not the least of which was the way he reacted when he thought you had rejected him."
"Are you trying to tell me that I'm responsible for them getting back together?" Her lip trembled. "That if I had called him even once in the three months we were apart, he wouldn't have gone looking for Alice?"
Will grimaced at the look on her face. "I'm not trying to twist the knife, Syd. I know you feel badly enough."
"Don't try to sugarcoat it, Will." Sydney shook her head resignedly. "Tell me what I did to him."
Will took a deep breath before speaking. "Well, you know that Mike was in D.C. when they released you, so you were already in Santa Barbara when he got back to town."
"Yeah."
"From what I heard, he went directly from the airport to the holding facilities where they were keeping you and he raised a pretty big stink when he found out they'd let you go without finding out where you were headed." Will looked at her. "He felt they should have had someone on you, at least for a few days, just to be sure that you were no longer a target."
"Vaughn always looked out for me." Her throat began to tighten as it always did when she was about to cry.
"Francie said that he came by the apartment. She didn't know who he was. She just thought he was some random CIA guy coming to check on you." Will went on. "She told him that some of your stuff was missing. Some clothes and your laptop and your CD player."
"That was my father's doing. He must have gone to the apartment one night when Francie was working late, so she never knew he'd been there."
"She didn't notice that your things were gone until that morning, but she was hesitant to call the police because she wasn't sure if it was just the CIA confiscating some of your belongings to bring to you over at the lock-up."
"That's when Mike got worried because he knew that the CIA was no longer holding you." Will thought back to the day when he had answered his phone at Headquarters to find a frantic Vaughn on the other end of the line. "He actually called me to find out if I knew what had happened to you."
Sydney gave Will a surprised look. "He called you?"
"Yeah, I know, he and I weren't exactly best buds at the time, so I know it took a lot of guts for him to dial my number." Will said with grudging respect. "I told him that I didn't know where you were--which was the truth, of course--but at the time, I wasn't sure if he really believed me."
"He couldn't have thought that you would try to keep us apart, could he?" She asked dubiously.
"I think it might have crossed his mind for a brief second." Will shrugged. "It didn't bother me."
"You know, I fully intended to call him and leave a message telling him where I had gone. All during the drive, I kept telling myself that it was the first thing I was going to do the minute I reached the house." Sydney explained in a quiet voice. "But then when I got there, I found out that the phone wasn't hooked up and I didn't have my cell because they didn't give it back to me when I was released. I was a little ticked off, but I told myself that it would be okay if I waited a few days because it's not as if they would have let him rush back home from testifying just because I needed him."
"But as it turned out, I guess those few days made the difference because you know what happened next." She turned somber.
Will nodded. "I know that Mike tried to get in touch with your father, but he was still undergoing the debriefing process and they had moved him to a secret location." He cut his eyes at Sydney. "I assume your dad told you about the threat of a possible retaliatory attack against him?"
She nodded. "He didn't tell me at the time it was going on because he didn't want me to worry, but I found out later."
"So, anyway, because your father was underground, of course they weren't letting him receive any calls, so Mike never got a hold of him. That's when he started to lose it." Will recalled. "He was so panicked over your disappearance that it got all of us kind of scared that something might have happened to you."
"And then a few weeks later, word came down that your father had finally been released from custody." He paused. "Mike was just getting ready to go meet him at the airport when he found out that your father had asked for a leave of absence so that he could spend some time with his daughter."
"I think that's what pushed him over the edge." Will looked grim. "Not that he got all violent and tore up his office or smashed a few cars, but after realizing that you were actually okay and had just never bothered to get in touch with him, he became really upset."
"Oh, Will," A single tear trailed down Sydney's face.
"He thought you wanted nothing to do with him, Sydney. That the reason you never contacted him was because you were trying to escape from your past." Will spoke gently, trying to soften the blow as best he could. "He believed that you wanted to forget about everything that had to do with your former life as a spy and since he was a big part of that, he thought you wanted to forget about him as well."
"No, no, no." She shook her head back and forth. "Finding Vaughn? Falling in love with him? That was the only worthwhile thing to come out of that time in my life, Will. He had to have known that." She said desperately.
"I guess he wasn't sure, Syd, and those insecurities led him to believe the worst of you." Will squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. "I know what it's like to want someone to feel a certain way about you and I know how devastating it can be when they don't." He gave her a meaningful look.
"But I did feel that way about him. I still do." She said disconsolately. "And it wasn't as if I didn't want to tell him how I felt. We had restrictions put upon us in which neither of us had any say."
"Yeah, yeah, constraints of the job, no emotional attachments, blah blah blah." He looked at her balefully. "Sydney, you weren't bound by any rules after you left the CIA. You were free to say anything you chose to him." Will reminded her.
"Will, you know why I didn't." Sydney burst out at him. Will was the only other person besides her father who knew what had happened to her. "I didn't because I couldn't."
"Yeah, I know that now and I can cut you some slack for it, but you have to know how it looked, Syd. None of us, not Mike or me or Francie, received so much as an email from you." Will was careful to keep the critical tone out of his voice. No need to turn the screws. "We had all been worried sick that perhaps one of the Alliance members who were in hiding had abducted you or maybe Sloane had made one last-ditch effort to get back at you for ruining him."
"And then we find out you were sunning yourself on the beach in Santa Barbara?" He raised an eyebrow. "Even I have to admit I was a little ticked off at you."
"Okay, okay, I get it." She swiped at her eyes. "You were mad and he was bitter."
"Bitter doesn't even begin to cover it." Will said soberly. "I wasn't aware of what was going on, but Weiss told me what happened to him. Mike started drinking, going to bars, staying out late. There were times when he'd come in to work looking as if he'd just crawled out from under a rock. He'd be wearing the same wrinkled suit he had on from the previous day and his face would have this scraggly stubble on it and sometimes he'd still have a bit of a buzz on him. It wasn't pretty."
"It was inevitable that his self-destructive behavior would begin to affect his performance at work. He had just been recently promoted, but you could tell whenever you were in conversation with him that his head wasn't into it." Will shook his head. "Looking back on it now, he probably should have taken some time off, but Mike kept insisting that his job was the only thing that was keeping him afloat." He gave her a regretful look. "In reality, he was going under fast."
"Oh, God," Sydney looked disturbed. "I had no idea."
"Weiss tried to run interference for awhile and even I pitched in, but eventually Devlin found out what we were doing." Will grimaced. "That's when he called Mike into his office and told him flat-out that he either had to shape up or he'd be gone."
"Poor Vaughn." Sydney murmured. "I know how much his career with the CIA means to him. It's his way of honoring his father's memory."
"I think the threat of dismissal was enough to shake him up." Will looked thoughtful. "By some weird twist of fate, Mike ran into Alice after his meeting with Devlin and somehow she got him back on track. They spent the entire weekend together and on Monday morning, he was in his office an hour early. Ever since then, Devlin's had nothing but praise for him."
"Well, I guess I should be grateful to her for that, at least." Sydney sniffed. "When did this all happen, Will? When did he get back together with her?"
"Well, Mike was out of it for practically all of last summer and they've been back together for about nine months, so I guess it must have been some time around the beginning of September."
The beginning of September. Oh, God! Sydney's hand flew to her mouth. It was Alice who had answered Vaughn's phone that morning. It had to have been. What was that saying: A day late and a dollar short? That summed up Sydney's situation perfectly as she sat there contemplating the cruelty of fate and lousy timing.
"They must have gotten engaged pretty soon after that, huh?" She asked as she struggled to keep from breaking down. "I mean, considering all the preparations that had to be made for a June wedding?"
"It happened at Christmas." Will nodded. "Of course, you know how that worked, don't you? You can bet Alice finagled it somehow so that there would be an engagement ring waiting for her under the tree." He said with a wry look.
"She sounds rather controlling." Sydney commented.
"Does the word 'dominatrix' mean anything to you?" He waggled an eyebrow.
"Will!" Sydney wrinkled her nose distastefully. "I don't need the images of leather dog collars and bullwhips in my head."
"Well, she does lead him around by his you-know-whats." Will muttered, but loud enough for her to hear.
"Enough!" Her voice rose.
"Do you want to check it out for yourself?" He couldn't resist adding.
"What!" Sydney nearly shrieked.
"I don't mean it that way. Get your mind out of the S&M club." Will rolled his eyes at her. "I didn't mention it before, but there's a lot of stuff planned for this weekend besides the actual wedding. Alice has a ton of out-of-town guests coming in and she has them partying every minute of the day up until the wedding ceremony."
"First off, there's a cocktail reception to welcome her guests on Thursday night at the Haviland Bay Yacht Club." Will made Sydney giggle by putting on a posh accent. "That's semi-formal dress, by the way. You know, blue blazers, ascots, perfectly pressed white slacks." He turned his nose in the air.
"That is the perfect look for you!" Sydney laughed at the picture he had conjured up in her head. "It would be like Mr. Howell from 'Gilligan's Island!'"
"Yeah, as if I could ever live it down if any of the guys from work saw me dressed like that!" Will made a face at her before proceeding on to the next event on his social calendar. "On Friday, Alice's mother is hosting a catered barbecue at her estate for family and friends. It's supposed to be casual, but somehow I think Alice's idea of casual does not jibe with the t-shirt-and-shorts ensemble that you and I would go with."
"No, of course not." Sydney said drolly. "I picture a lot of khaki and shirts with little animal patches on them."
"Damn, now I'm going to have to go shopping." Will quipped as she giggled. "The rehearsal dinner is on Friday night and then the wedding is scheduled to take place on Saturday evening followed by a sit-down dinner reception."
Will looked at her. "Since I'm in the wedding party, I'm invited to all of these events and seeing as how I'm very much single at the moment, I would love it if you would be my guest."
Sydney hesitated. The temptation to see Vaughn again was so great, but it was tempered by the fact that she knew he wouldn't be as overjoyed to see her as she would be to see him. She was crashing his wedding, for Pete's sake! How forward was that?
"Syd, how about it?" He nudged her. "You can see it firsthand if I'm exaggerating about Mike."
"Alice isn't going to like you bringing me along." She warned.
"As if I care what she thinks." He scoffed.
"You know, Will, I'm kind of getting the vibe here that you don't like her." Sydney observed.
Will let out a sigh. "Well, to be fair, I actually don't know her all that well, but that's because she's a bit elitist and standoffish." His lip curled. "Anybody with an attitude like that completely turns me off, anyway, and that's not even taking into consideration the fact that I hate what she's turned Mike into."
She looked speculative. "Have you ever sat him down and told him how you felt?"
He shot her an indulgent look. "Syd, Mike and I are friends." He said patiently. "We hang out, we go to hockey games, we play pool. For the most part, we get along really well."
"But--and you knew there was one--" Will added with a comical wiggle of his eyebrows. "There will always be that little competitive thing between us and that, sweetheart, is because of you." He said seriously.
"Will…" Sydney started to protest.
"Wait, Syd, I'm not saying this to put any blame on you because there's no blame to be had." He cut her off. "I'm just trying to explain why we don't go there."
"Well, I don't get it. Are you saying that Vaughn would be mistrustful of your motives?" She questioned him. "Why would he be if you're supposed to be his friend?"
"Because not so long ago, he thought of me as a rival." Will reminded her. "It was unfounded, of course, but guys are like that, Syd. We have long memories and we don't forget when another guy makes a move on our girl."
"But he supposedly doesn't want me." Sydney pointed out. "And it doesn't make sense, anyway, because it's not as if you want to talk him into marrying Alice so that you'd have a clear shot at me." She gave him a pointed look. "Which you don't, by the way."
"Point duly noted." He drawled.
"You'd be trying to talk him out of marrying her, so why wouldn't he listen to what you have to say?"
"Because if I criticize her, Mike will get all belligerent and defensive." Will said matter-of-factly. "He'll say that I don't know her like he does and that she's really a great person and that I just have to give her a chance. He'll bend over backwards trying to convince himself that she's the real deal because he's so afraid of feeling as if he's just settling for what he can get rather than having what he wants."
"And he doesn't want to go down that road, Syd." Will's blue eyes gazed into hers. "Mike's already had his heart broken once and the thought of it happening again scares him so much that he's running as hard and as fast as he can in the opposite direction."
Sydney's heart felt as if it were breaking as well. "If Vaughn is running away from me, then I think I would be the last person he would want to see two days before his wedding."
Will gave her a sage look. "Or maybe you're the only person he would want to see two days before his wedding."
To be continued…
Author's Note: I rewrote a bit of history concerning Vaughn's and Alice's relationship. Let's just assume that Alice never showed her face in Season 2, so Sydney never met her and Vaughn and Alice never got back together (I'm still holding out hope that they never did on the show. Didn't Vaughn just say they were trying to figure things out?).
As always, thanks for your time reading and reviewing. I always enjoy hearing what you have to say and cheering me on.
See ya later!