TITLE: Past
AUTHOR: Carrie
DISTRIBUTION: Anywhere just let me know so I can visit
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Alias or any of the characters that appear on the show.
NOTE: Thanks so much for the reviews guys, it means so much to me! I'm going to keep at it, at least for a little while. This is a really long chapter, and I enjoyed writing it. There's more action, and I promise that there's S/V stuff coming up.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
As predicted, Sydney had gotten very little sleep last night. She kept thinking about Vaughn. Had he missed her as much as she missed him? She hoped so. Walking into the office, she was surprised to see that Vaughn was already there. He was waiting patiently outside of Sloane's office. She desperately wanted to go and talk to him, but she didn't, for fear that people would become suspicious if she was overly nice to him.
Almost as if feeling her eyes on him, he looked up and locked eyes with her. He smiled slightly, politely, before averting his eyes. Sydney was content with this acknowledgement, and took a seat at her desk. A few minutes later, she heard Sloane call Vaughn into his office.
"Mr. Vaughn, come in." Sloane said, smiling at the younger man.
Vaughn nodded and walked into the office and observed as Sloane pushed a button that shut the many doors.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting." Sloane apologized.
"It's no problem." Vaughn assured him.
Sloane was silent for a few moments, simply looking at Vaughn. Vaughn felt uncomfortable under his gaze, but didn't say anything.
Finally, Sloane spoke. "Agent Kessler said that you did outstandingly well in training." He commented.
Vaughn nodded, "Yes, I really enjoyed it." He said.
"Good, good. Well, I'm very pleased to say that I think you will make a valuable addition to our team here." Sloane said, smiling.
Vaughn smiled gratefully. "Thank you, sir. Thank you very much."
"Jack has utmost faith in your abilities, as do I. Because of your special situation, meaning the fact that you've had prior training and that the trade seems to come so naturally to you, we are going to move you ahead a few steps." Sloane said, pausing to gauge Vaughn's reaction. Vaughn nodded, listening intently. "Most people start out as interns, or assistants and then move up slowly. You have already skipped these steps because you have already had training. Our next move is to see how you do in the field. Starting next week, we are going to send you on a series of reconnaissance missions. You will go with our team and observe them, assist them, and most of all learn from them." Sloane said. "Until then, you will get to know how we work around here and familiarize yourself with our people, process and equipment. If these missions go well, we will gradually give you more and more responsibilities in missions. Any questions?"
"No, everything sounds great. I can't wait to get started." Vaughn said enthusiastically, and genuinely.
"Great." Sloane said, then as an afterthought, "Have you met Sydney Bristow?" he asked.
Vaughn didn't really understand the relevance of the question, but he answered anyway. "Yes, I met her the first time I came."
"If you get the chance, spend some time getting to know Sydney. She's a great agent who could teach you a lot. You'll probably be working with her at some point." Sloane said.
"Great." Vaughn said, taking it as a good sign that Sloane wanted him to spend time with Sydney.
Sloane stood, and Vaughn followed suit. "Okay. I'll talk with you again soon, see how things are going. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask." Sloane said, extending his hand to Vaughn.
Vaughn accepted it, "Thank you," he said.
Vaughn walked out of the office and felt a huge wave of relief wash over him. He was finally in. He looked towards Sydney's desk and saw her looking up at him. She could read him perfectly, and knew that it had gone well. Vaughn walked towards her desk.
"Hi," He said extending his hand, "I'm Michael Vaughn. We met a few weeks ago." He said.
"Right," she said, rising and shaking his hand, "I'm Sydney Bristow." She smiled.
"Sloane said that I should come and talk to you. That you're one of the best and I could learn a lot from you." Vaughn said smiling.
"Well, I'm not going to argue with that." Sydney said jokingly. "So you just came from training?" Sydney asked.
"Yeah."
They continued with small talk; where they were from, what he did before he joined SD-6, what colleges they'd gone to, life as a spy. They kept the conversation light, so that to any onlookers, they would look like two people who just met.
The rest of the day was pretty easy. Vaughn made his rounds, meeting everyone in the office. It was strange meeting Dixon, and everyone else that he'd heard so much about from Sydney. These people were good people, who thought that they were working for their country, not against it. Vaughn now really understood what Sydney went through everyday.
The rest of the week was actually pretty slow. Vaughn had pictured his life as a double agent as hectic and exhausting. He guessed that there would be plenty of time for that later. At the end of the week, Sloane told him that he would leave for his first mission on Monday morning, and introduced him to the mission leader.
The mission seemed relatively easy. All they were doing was surveying the house of a 'suspected terrorist' in Moscow and seeing if there was any suspicious activity at a party that the owner was having. The party was apparently a distraction for something else.
The weekend came and went, Vaughn mostly stayed in for lack of other things to do, he couldn't exactly go out with any of his CIA friends. He worked out a few times and went to the track, but really, all he could do was wait. Wait until his mission, wait until he was trusted, wait until they could start doing some damage, wait until he could be with Sydney.
Monday morning finally came. Vaughn met the rest of the team in the basement of SD-6 to get all of their equipment together. When he walked in, Brady, the mission leader whom Vaughn had met last week, greeted him.
"Hey, Vaughn, come on in." He said. Brady was a good guy. He was about Vaughn's age and really friendly. "Meet everyone." He said. Several guys looked up and walked over to Vaughn. "This is Carter, Burns, West, and James." Each one came forward to shake Vaughn's hand."
"You must be this Agent Vaughn we've heard so much about." James commented.
Vaughn was confused, "what?" he asked.
"Yeah, I talked to Kessler out in Sacramento and he said that you kicked his ass everyday for three weeks." James elaborated.
"Oh, he's just being nice because I set him up with one of the girls in the program." Vaughn said.
"Sure, whatever." James said unbelievingly. "All I know is that I'm staying out of the way of any guy who can kick Kessler's ass, that's for sure." James chuckled and walked back to the equipment tables.
Because they weren't really government sanctioned, they could not bypass national security. They could only bring a minimal amount of arms with them, the rest they would get at their destination. When they were all packed up, they filed into a van that would take them to the airport. Their cover was that they were a group of businessmen going to a conference in Moscow. That was always their cover.
Everything went smoothly in the airport, and on the plane, Vaughn was seated next to James. Even though Vaughn had only known him for a little over an hour, he could tell that James was the horn-dog/trouble maker of the group; an SD-6 Weiss.
A little while after take-off, the flight attendants started coming around with drinks. James elbowed Vaughn to look at a female attendant approaching them. She was young, blond, and very perky. "Check it out." He said, blatantly drooling.
"Can I get you anything?" she said as she came to their row.
"Yeah." James said, "Your phone number would really make this flight more comfortable." He said, giving her his most charming smile.
The woman rolled her eyes. "To drink?" she asked, holding up a coke.
"Aww.you shouldn't be walking around on this plane, it could be dangerous. How 'bout my buddy Vaughn takes over and you come and sit with me?" he suggested. Vaughn couldn't help but be amused.
The attendant gave up on him and looked at Vaughn. "Can I get you anything?" she asked him.
"A coke would be great." Vaughn said. She handed him a cup of ice and a coke. "Thanks." He said.
The woman looked at James one more time as if to say 'last chance' then walked away. James followed her with his eyes until she disappeared into the attendant area. Once she was out of sight, James reached over and grabbed Vaughn's coke off his tray table.
"Hey." Vaughn said.
"I'm thirsty." James replied.
Vaughn grabbed it back. "You missed your chance man." Vaughn told him.
"Don't worry, she'll be back. The ladies never stay away from me for too long." He said, peering down the isle again.
"Whatever." Vaughn replied.
The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. The only entertainment was James's misguided attempts at flirting with the poor girl. He actually managed to coax a name out of her, but that's about it. Vaughn slept for most of the time.
They landed in Moscow in the early afternoon. As they were walking out of the plane, Sarah, the female attendant came up to James and handed him a napkin with a phone number on it. "Hope you enjoyed the flight." She said before walking away.
James put the number in his pocket and looked at Vaughn. "Told ya." He said.
From the airport, they went to the Moscow facility to get the equipment that they would need for the mission. This mostly consisted of guns, munitions, night vision goggles and other things that they couldn't bring on the plane. By the time they had everything in order it was five o'clock. The house where the party was to be held was about an hour away. They all got in a van with all their gear on and headed to the house. On the way, Brady went over the details of the mission.
It was purely reconnaissance. They would gather information about any suspicious activity and report it back to SD-6. If it was something that had to be acted upon immediately, then they would report back and the mission would be changed. Vaughn's job was to stick with Brady and observe. After all, this was his first field mission.
They arrived at a point near the party when it was dark, and guests were filtering in. They got out of the van quietly and broke off into their different sections. Since there were only six men in total, each man went a separate way except for Brady and Vaughn.
The area was densely wooded, so it would be easy to stay out of sight. Brady and Vaughn crept along behind bushes until they saw a clearing ahead of them. Right beyond the clearing, there was a building that looked like a small storage facility about fifty feet away from where they were. There were two men standing outside of it. They appeared to be just helpers at the party, there to instruct you where the bathroom was it you got lost, but Vaughn knew the difference between glorified waiters and guards.
Vaughn looked over at Brady, who was still surveying the area. Vaughn nudged him slightly and nodded towards the building. Brady nodded. "Stay here." He said. Vaughn nodded and watched as Brady crept along on the perimeter of the clearing, staying in the shadows and in the bushes.
When Brady was about half way there, a third guard ambushed him from behind. Vaughn immediately leapt up, running towards Brady. He could tell by the way the guard moved that he was no ordinary bodyguard, but trained security. Not far from them, Vaughn heard the other two guards shout and begin to run over. Vaughn knew that he had to act fast.
The guard that was attacking Brady was clearly overpowering him. Vaughn grabbed a hold of the guard and pulled him off of Brady. Before the man contemplated what was happening, Vaughn kneed him in the chest, then while he was bent over, elbowed him on the back of his neck, rendering him unconscious. He looked down at Brady and saw that he was bleeding from his shoulder. They guard had a knife. Brady was lying on the ground, but he was conscious and he looked at Vaughn. Vaughn decided that for the moment, Brady was fine, and that he had to concentrate on the other two guards. The guard that had attacked Brady hadn't had a gun, but he couldn't be sure that these two didn't. Sure enough, he saw one of the guards reaching under his jacket for a gun. Before he had a chance to pull it out, Vaughn charged him and punched him in the face, momentarily offsetting him. The second guard was coming up behind him, but Vaughn was ready for him and grabbed his arm from behind him as he was reaching into his coat. Vaughn elbowed the guard in the face, sending him backwards as the other guard approached. Vaughn's arm was still hooked around the second guard's arm, so as the first guard came nearer, Vaughn leaned against the bent-over guard he was attached to and swung his leg around to kick the man in the side of the head. The guard was reeling and fell to the ground, unconscious. Vaughn leaned off of the other guard and spun around to punch him in the face. The guard was frazzled but recovered quickly, moving to punch Vaughn. Vaughn grabbed the offending hand, wrapped his fingers around the wrist and twisting it, sending the man to the ground in pain. Vaughn swung his leg around again, hitting the man on his head and knocking him out.
Vaughn looked around the area to make sure that there were no more guards coming. When he was assured that there weren't, he moved back over to Brady. By this time, Brady was leaning up on his good arm, watching the show.
"You okay?" Vaughn asked.
Brady nodded. "That was pretty impressive." He commented.
"Thanks." Vaughn replied, helping Brady to his feet. Brady groaned and grabbed his shoulder.
"Son of a bitch." He swore, inspecting his shoulder. Vaughn looked at it too.
"It's not too deep." He said, "It'll heal fine." Vaughn said.
Brady nodded in agreement. "There's one thing I've gotta ask you, Vaughn." Vaughn looked at him. "You saw those guys reaching for their guns. You could've had your gun out in a second. Why didn't you just shoot 'em?" Brady asked.
"Didn't want to draw attention. I knew I could take them, and I want to see what's in that warehouse." Vaughn replied. He looked over at the warehouse and started to walk towards it. Brady followed him.
When they got to the door of the warehouse, Brady jiggled the handle, finding it locked. "My right arm's useless. You know how to pick locks?" Brady asked. Vaughn nodded unzipping a side pocket of his jacket and taking two small metal sticks out of it. He stuck them into the lock and swirled them around for a moment before the door clicked open.
"Jesus, Vaughn, is there anything you can't do better than me? It would have taken me at least a minute to do that." Brady said.
Vaughn shrugged. "What can I say, I was a curious child." Brady shook his head and walked through the door. Immediately following the door there was a flight of steps leading into a basement. In the basement there were hundreds of suitcases, piled high. Brady picked one of them up and unzipped it, only to find it empty.
"He's smuggling counterfeit suitcases?" he said, thinking it was a joke.
Vaughn surveyed the situation. "No, it's a diversion. He wants us to think that they're all empty." Vaughn said. He moved around the room picking up suitcases, finding them all empty.
Brady watched him. "I don't know man, I think we just had some bad information on this one." He said. However, Vaughn kept moving. There were tons of shelves, each with dozens of suitcases on them. He moved through the shelves, pushing the suitcases around, waiting to meet resistance from one that had something in it. Brady looked at his watch and was just about to tell Vaughn that they should leave when he heard Vaughn shout.
"Hey. I found something." He said. Brady ran over to him just as Vaughn was opening a suitcase. What Vaughn saw shocked him. He knew immediately what it was, but knew that he shouldn't say anything since Brady thought that this was his first day on the job. "What is it?" Vaughn asked.
Brady peered into the case. "It's a warhead." Brady said. "A nuclear warhead." He repeated, completely stunned. He looked at Vaughn. "Nice work." He said, unable to find more appropriate words. "We need to get this out of here." He said.
Vaughn nodded and continued searching the warehouse for another one. Brady spoke into his com unit. After a short conversation with the base unit describing what they had, he was ordered to retrieve the warhead. He then addressed the team. "All units return to base." He said. "Rendezvous in 5 minutes."
"Did you find any others?" Brady asked. Vaughn shook his head.
"Here," Brady said, walking over to the suitcase, "Help me carry this." He said, grabbing a handle of the suitcase with his good arm.
Together, the men carried the suitcase out of the warehouse. There were no guards when they got to the top of the stairs, but when they got to the clearing, there were only two unconscious guards. They knew that they had to run before he came back with reinforcements.
They got to the van quickly, the last to arrive. As soon as they closed the door, they sped off.
"What happened to you?" One of the men asked, referring to Brady's shoulder.
"Guard stabbed me." Brady replied.
"Is that why we pulled out early?" James asked.
"No," Brady replied. "This is why we pulled out." He said, opening the suitcase.
"Holy shit." James said. "Where the hell did you find that?" he asked.
"Our rookie here found it." Brady said, nodding at Vaughn. "Looks like we've got ourselves a real-life superman." He said. The men looked at Brady, imploring him to elaborate. "Vaughn here was waiting in the bushes when I got ambushed and stabbed. He runs out knocks out the guard attacking me and two others with no weapons. He then proceeds to uncover a warhead in the midst of hundreds of empty suitcases." Brady said. "I swear, I thought he was nuts. It really just looked like a bunch of counterfeit suitcases. I don't know how you figured out that there was more to it." Brady said, knowing that Vaughn wasn't going to say anything.
Vaughn just shrugged. The rest of the way back to the base was quieter. Brady's wound was tended to while he filled in details about the rest of the mission to the curious guys. Although Vaughn liked the admiration he was getting, it was making him uneasy. He wasn't supposed to know these things. This was supposed to be his first field mission, and he was getting worried that the men would start to suspect something if he was too good at this. Vaughn shrugged it off; there was nothing he could do about it now.
Vaughn was thankful that his first mission went well. He was going to make a good impression on Sloane, bringing back a nuclear warhead. He didn't really want Sloane to be in possession of a warhead, but he knew that the only way he was going to do any damage to SD-6 was if he gained their trust. Saving an officer and getting warhead was bound to accelerate his acceptance.
Despite all the issues there were with this mission, it had felt great. That surge of adrenaline that he got when he was fighting was a feeling that he'd missed extremely. He loved that feeling, and relished the fact that from then on, he'd be feeling it a lot more often.
A/N: Whoo. That was a long chapter. Thanks so much for your reviews!! They mean the world to me and keep me going. There's definitely going to be S/V stuff coming up.I just had to establish Vaughn in SD-6. It's going to go more quickly though, I promise!
AUTHOR: Carrie
DISTRIBUTION: Anywhere just let me know so I can visit
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Alias or any of the characters that appear on the show.
NOTE: Thanks so much for the reviews guys, it means so much to me! I'm going to keep at it, at least for a little while. This is a really long chapter, and I enjoyed writing it. There's more action, and I promise that there's S/V stuff coming up.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
As predicted, Sydney had gotten very little sleep last night. She kept thinking about Vaughn. Had he missed her as much as she missed him? She hoped so. Walking into the office, she was surprised to see that Vaughn was already there. He was waiting patiently outside of Sloane's office. She desperately wanted to go and talk to him, but she didn't, for fear that people would become suspicious if she was overly nice to him.
Almost as if feeling her eyes on him, he looked up and locked eyes with her. He smiled slightly, politely, before averting his eyes. Sydney was content with this acknowledgement, and took a seat at her desk. A few minutes later, she heard Sloane call Vaughn into his office.
"Mr. Vaughn, come in." Sloane said, smiling at the younger man.
Vaughn nodded and walked into the office and observed as Sloane pushed a button that shut the many doors.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting." Sloane apologized.
"It's no problem." Vaughn assured him.
Sloane was silent for a few moments, simply looking at Vaughn. Vaughn felt uncomfortable under his gaze, but didn't say anything.
Finally, Sloane spoke. "Agent Kessler said that you did outstandingly well in training." He commented.
Vaughn nodded, "Yes, I really enjoyed it." He said.
"Good, good. Well, I'm very pleased to say that I think you will make a valuable addition to our team here." Sloane said, smiling.
Vaughn smiled gratefully. "Thank you, sir. Thank you very much."
"Jack has utmost faith in your abilities, as do I. Because of your special situation, meaning the fact that you've had prior training and that the trade seems to come so naturally to you, we are going to move you ahead a few steps." Sloane said, pausing to gauge Vaughn's reaction. Vaughn nodded, listening intently. "Most people start out as interns, or assistants and then move up slowly. You have already skipped these steps because you have already had training. Our next move is to see how you do in the field. Starting next week, we are going to send you on a series of reconnaissance missions. You will go with our team and observe them, assist them, and most of all learn from them." Sloane said. "Until then, you will get to know how we work around here and familiarize yourself with our people, process and equipment. If these missions go well, we will gradually give you more and more responsibilities in missions. Any questions?"
"No, everything sounds great. I can't wait to get started." Vaughn said enthusiastically, and genuinely.
"Great." Sloane said, then as an afterthought, "Have you met Sydney Bristow?" he asked.
Vaughn didn't really understand the relevance of the question, but he answered anyway. "Yes, I met her the first time I came."
"If you get the chance, spend some time getting to know Sydney. She's a great agent who could teach you a lot. You'll probably be working with her at some point." Sloane said.
"Great." Vaughn said, taking it as a good sign that Sloane wanted him to spend time with Sydney.
Sloane stood, and Vaughn followed suit. "Okay. I'll talk with you again soon, see how things are going. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask." Sloane said, extending his hand to Vaughn.
Vaughn accepted it, "Thank you," he said.
Vaughn walked out of the office and felt a huge wave of relief wash over him. He was finally in. He looked towards Sydney's desk and saw her looking up at him. She could read him perfectly, and knew that it had gone well. Vaughn walked towards her desk.
"Hi," He said extending his hand, "I'm Michael Vaughn. We met a few weeks ago." He said.
"Right," she said, rising and shaking his hand, "I'm Sydney Bristow." She smiled.
"Sloane said that I should come and talk to you. That you're one of the best and I could learn a lot from you." Vaughn said smiling.
"Well, I'm not going to argue with that." Sydney said jokingly. "So you just came from training?" Sydney asked.
"Yeah."
They continued with small talk; where they were from, what he did before he joined SD-6, what colleges they'd gone to, life as a spy. They kept the conversation light, so that to any onlookers, they would look like two people who just met.
The rest of the day was pretty easy. Vaughn made his rounds, meeting everyone in the office. It was strange meeting Dixon, and everyone else that he'd heard so much about from Sydney. These people were good people, who thought that they were working for their country, not against it. Vaughn now really understood what Sydney went through everyday.
The rest of the week was actually pretty slow. Vaughn had pictured his life as a double agent as hectic and exhausting. He guessed that there would be plenty of time for that later. At the end of the week, Sloane told him that he would leave for his first mission on Monday morning, and introduced him to the mission leader.
The mission seemed relatively easy. All they were doing was surveying the house of a 'suspected terrorist' in Moscow and seeing if there was any suspicious activity at a party that the owner was having. The party was apparently a distraction for something else.
The weekend came and went, Vaughn mostly stayed in for lack of other things to do, he couldn't exactly go out with any of his CIA friends. He worked out a few times and went to the track, but really, all he could do was wait. Wait until his mission, wait until he was trusted, wait until they could start doing some damage, wait until he could be with Sydney.
Monday morning finally came. Vaughn met the rest of the team in the basement of SD-6 to get all of their equipment together. When he walked in, Brady, the mission leader whom Vaughn had met last week, greeted him.
"Hey, Vaughn, come on in." He said. Brady was a good guy. He was about Vaughn's age and really friendly. "Meet everyone." He said. Several guys looked up and walked over to Vaughn. "This is Carter, Burns, West, and James." Each one came forward to shake Vaughn's hand."
"You must be this Agent Vaughn we've heard so much about." James commented.
Vaughn was confused, "what?" he asked.
"Yeah, I talked to Kessler out in Sacramento and he said that you kicked his ass everyday for three weeks." James elaborated.
"Oh, he's just being nice because I set him up with one of the girls in the program." Vaughn said.
"Sure, whatever." James said unbelievingly. "All I know is that I'm staying out of the way of any guy who can kick Kessler's ass, that's for sure." James chuckled and walked back to the equipment tables.
Because they weren't really government sanctioned, they could not bypass national security. They could only bring a minimal amount of arms with them, the rest they would get at their destination. When they were all packed up, they filed into a van that would take them to the airport. Their cover was that they were a group of businessmen going to a conference in Moscow. That was always their cover.
Everything went smoothly in the airport, and on the plane, Vaughn was seated next to James. Even though Vaughn had only known him for a little over an hour, he could tell that James was the horn-dog/trouble maker of the group; an SD-6 Weiss.
A little while after take-off, the flight attendants started coming around with drinks. James elbowed Vaughn to look at a female attendant approaching them. She was young, blond, and very perky. "Check it out." He said, blatantly drooling.
"Can I get you anything?" she said as she came to their row.
"Yeah." James said, "Your phone number would really make this flight more comfortable." He said, giving her his most charming smile.
The woman rolled her eyes. "To drink?" she asked, holding up a coke.
"Aww.you shouldn't be walking around on this plane, it could be dangerous. How 'bout my buddy Vaughn takes over and you come and sit with me?" he suggested. Vaughn couldn't help but be amused.
The attendant gave up on him and looked at Vaughn. "Can I get you anything?" she asked him.
"A coke would be great." Vaughn said. She handed him a cup of ice and a coke. "Thanks." He said.
The woman looked at James one more time as if to say 'last chance' then walked away. James followed her with his eyes until she disappeared into the attendant area. Once she was out of sight, James reached over and grabbed Vaughn's coke off his tray table.
"Hey." Vaughn said.
"I'm thirsty." James replied.
Vaughn grabbed it back. "You missed your chance man." Vaughn told him.
"Don't worry, she'll be back. The ladies never stay away from me for too long." He said, peering down the isle again.
"Whatever." Vaughn replied.
The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. The only entertainment was James's misguided attempts at flirting with the poor girl. He actually managed to coax a name out of her, but that's about it. Vaughn slept for most of the time.
They landed in Moscow in the early afternoon. As they were walking out of the plane, Sarah, the female attendant came up to James and handed him a napkin with a phone number on it. "Hope you enjoyed the flight." She said before walking away.
James put the number in his pocket and looked at Vaughn. "Told ya." He said.
From the airport, they went to the Moscow facility to get the equipment that they would need for the mission. This mostly consisted of guns, munitions, night vision goggles and other things that they couldn't bring on the plane. By the time they had everything in order it was five o'clock. The house where the party was to be held was about an hour away. They all got in a van with all their gear on and headed to the house. On the way, Brady went over the details of the mission.
It was purely reconnaissance. They would gather information about any suspicious activity and report it back to SD-6. If it was something that had to be acted upon immediately, then they would report back and the mission would be changed. Vaughn's job was to stick with Brady and observe. After all, this was his first field mission.
They arrived at a point near the party when it was dark, and guests were filtering in. They got out of the van quietly and broke off into their different sections. Since there were only six men in total, each man went a separate way except for Brady and Vaughn.
The area was densely wooded, so it would be easy to stay out of sight. Brady and Vaughn crept along behind bushes until they saw a clearing ahead of them. Right beyond the clearing, there was a building that looked like a small storage facility about fifty feet away from where they were. There were two men standing outside of it. They appeared to be just helpers at the party, there to instruct you where the bathroom was it you got lost, but Vaughn knew the difference between glorified waiters and guards.
Vaughn looked over at Brady, who was still surveying the area. Vaughn nudged him slightly and nodded towards the building. Brady nodded. "Stay here." He said. Vaughn nodded and watched as Brady crept along on the perimeter of the clearing, staying in the shadows and in the bushes.
When Brady was about half way there, a third guard ambushed him from behind. Vaughn immediately leapt up, running towards Brady. He could tell by the way the guard moved that he was no ordinary bodyguard, but trained security. Not far from them, Vaughn heard the other two guards shout and begin to run over. Vaughn knew that he had to act fast.
The guard that was attacking Brady was clearly overpowering him. Vaughn grabbed a hold of the guard and pulled him off of Brady. Before the man contemplated what was happening, Vaughn kneed him in the chest, then while he was bent over, elbowed him on the back of his neck, rendering him unconscious. He looked down at Brady and saw that he was bleeding from his shoulder. They guard had a knife. Brady was lying on the ground, but he was conscious and he looked at Vaughn. Vaughn decided that for the moment, Brady was fine, and that he had to concentrate on the other two guards. The guard that had attacked Brady hadn't had a gun, but he couldn't be sure that these two didn't. Sure enough, he saw one of the guards reaching under his jacket for a gun. Before he had a chance to pull it out, Vaughn charged him and punched him in the face, momentarily offsetting him. The second guard was coming up behind him, but Vaughn was ready for him and grabbed his arm from behind him as he was reaching into his coat. Vaughn elbowed the guard in the face, sending him backwards as the other guard approached. Vaughn's arm was still hooked around the second guard's arm, so as the first guard came nearer, Vaughn leaned against the bent-over guard he was attached to and swung his leg around to kick the man in the side of the head. The guard was reeling and fell to the ground, unconscious. Vaughn leaned off of the other guard and spun around to punch him in the face. The guard was frazzled but recovered quickly, moving to punch Vaughn. Vaughn grabbed the offending hand, wrapped his fingers around the wrist and twisting it, sending the man to the ground in pain. Vaughn swung his leg around again, hitting the man on his head and knocking him out.
Vaughn looked around the area to make sure that there were no more guards coming. When he was assured that there weren't, he moved back over to Brady. By this time, Brady was leaning up on his good arm, watching the show.
"You okay?" Vaughn asked.
Brady nodded. "That was pretty impressive." He commented.
"Thanks." Vaughn replied, helping Brady to his feet. Brady groaned and grabbed his shoulder.
"Son of a bitch." He swore, inspecting his shoulder. Vaughn looked at it too.
"It's not too deep." He said, "It'll heal fine." Vaughn said.
Brady nodded in agreement. "There's one thing I've gotta ask you, Vaughn." Vaughn looked at him. "You saw those guys reaching for their guns. You could've had your gun out in a second. Why didn't you just shoot 'em?" Brady asked.
"Didn't want to draw attention. I knew I could take them, and I want to see what's in that warehouse." Vaughn replied. He looked over at the warehouse and started to walk towards it. Brady followed him.
When they got to the door of the warehouse, Brady jiggled the handle, finding it locked. "My right arm's useless. You know how to pick locks?" Brady asked. Vaughn nodded unzipping a side pocket of his jacket and taking two small metal sticks out of it. He stuck them into the lock and swirled them around for a moment before the door clicked open.
"Jesus, Vaughn, is there anything you can't do better than me? It would have taken me at least a minute to do that." Brady said.
Vaughn shrugged. "What can I say, I was a curious child." Brady shook his head and walked through the door. Immediately following the door there was a flight of steps leading into a basement. In the basement there were hundreds of suitcases, piled high. Brady picked one of them up and unzipped it, only to find it empty.
"He's smuggling counterfeit suitcases?" he said, thinking it was a joke.
Vaughn surveyed the situation. "No, it's a diversion. He wants us to think that they're all empty." Vaughn said. He moved around the room picking up suitcases, finding them all empty.
Brady watched him. "I don't know man, I think we just had some bad information on this one." He said. However, Vaughn kept moving. There were tons of shelves, each with dozens of suitcases on them. He moved through the shelves, pushing the suitcases around, waiting to meet resistance from one that had something in it. Brady looked at his watch and was just about to tell Vaughn that they should leave when he heard Vaughn shout.
"Hey. I found something." He said. Brady ran over to him just as Vaughn was opening a suitcase. What Vaughn saw shocked him. He knew immediately what it was, but knew that he shouldn't say anything since Brady thought that this was his first day on the job. "What is it?" Vaughn asked.
Brady peered into the case. "It's a warhead." Brady said. "A nuclear warhead." He repeated, completely stunned. He looked at Vaughn. "Nice work." He said, unable to find more appropriate words. "We need to get this out of here." He said.
Vaughn nodded and continued searching the warehouse for another one. Brady spoke into his com unit. After a short conversation with the base unit describing what they had, he was ordered to retrieve the warhead. He then addressed the team. "All units return to base." He said. "Rendezvous in 5 minutes."
"Did you find any others?" Brady asked. Vaughn shook his head.
"Here," Brady said, walking over to the suitcase, "Help me carry this." He said, grabbing a handle of the suitcase with his good arm.
Together, the men carried the suitcase out of the warehouse. There were no guards when they got to the top of the stairs, but when they got to the clearing, there were only two unconscious guards. They knew that they had to run before he came back with reinforcements.
They got to the van quickly, the last to arrive. As soon as they closed the door, they sped off.
"What happened to you?" One of the men asked, referring to Brady's shoulder.
"Guard stabbed me." Brady replied.
"Is that why we pulled out early?" James asked.
"No," Brady replied. "This is why we pulled out." He said, opening the suitcase.
"Holy shit." James said. "Where the hell did you find that?" he asked.
"Our rookie here found it." Brady said, nodding at Vaughn. "Looks like we've got ourselves a real-life superman." He said. The men looked at Brady, imploring him to elaborate. "Vaughn here was waiting in the bushes when I got ambushed and stabbed. He runs out knocks out the guard attacking me and two others with no weapons. He then proceeds to uncover a warhead in the midst of hundreds of empty suitcases." Brady said. "I swear, I thought he was nuts. It really just looked like a bunch of counterfeit suitcases. I don't know how you figured out that there was more to it." Brady said, knowing that Vaughn wasn't going to say anything.
Vaughn just shrugged. The rest of the way back to the base was quieter. Brady's wound was tended to while he filled in details about the rest of the mission to the curious guys. Although Vaughn liked the admiration he was getting, it was making him uneasy. He wasn't supposed to know these things. This was supposed to be his first field mission, and he was getting worried that the men would start to suspect something if he was too good at this. Vaughn shrugged it off; there was nothing he could do about it now.
Vaughn was thankful that his first mission went well. He was going to make a good impression on Sloane, bringing back a nuclear warhead. He didn't really want Sloane to be in possession of a warhead, but he knew that the only way he was going to do any damage to SD-6 was if he gained their trust. Saving an officer and getting warhead was bound to accelerate his acceptance.
Despite all the issues there were with this mission, it had felt great. That surge of adrenaline that he got when he was fighting was a feeling that he'd missed extremely. He loved that feeling, and relished the fact that from then on, he'd be feeling it a lot more often.
A/N: Whoo. That was a long chapter. Thanks so much for your reviews!! They mean the world to me and keep me going. There's definitely going to be S/V stuff coming up.I just had to establish Vaughn in SD-6. It's going to go more quickly though, I promise!