Thanks for all the great reviews, and I'll try to update more often. Please R/R, it means a lot to me.
As Sydney got ready to leave, Vaughn turned around.
"Wait."
She turned to see his face, shrouded in darkness, with the knowledge and weight of great sorrow reflected in his emerald eyes.
He cleared his throat with great effort, "I'm truly sorry, Syd. I just needed some time to take it in, to understand what your words meant. If it had been anyone else telling me this, I don't know…believing is so hard sometimes. I want to take you somewhere, to help us make sense of all of this. Will you come?"
She nodded slightly, and murmured something inaudible.
They walked silently to his car. As Sydney sat down, she felt safe and warm. The car smelled wonderful, the scent of Vaughn's cologne and the new car mingling together.
Vaughn turned on the radio and something slow and sweet was playing in the background. As Vaughn drove out of the driveway of the warehouse, Sydney quickly lost track of the circles they made around the block to shake off any cars tailing them. The snow had turned to rain, and made pitter-patter sounds on the roof of Vaughn's car. Sydney felt her eyes closing, and promised herself it would be just for a moment. She was so tired, so very tired.
Vaughn heard the easy breathing, and turned to see a side of Sydney that was foreign to him. The side of Sydney that was utterly free of barriers: vulnerable, innocent, asleep. His hand drew up to her face, wanting to touch her cheek, but stopped and hovered millimeters above. Not now. Not like this. I need to take her home.
Sydney had once described the place she called home, and now the memory came to his mind as he guided the car towards her house. He parked across the street, opened his glove compartment, and found some files in a manila folder. He wrote his note painstakingly, making sure each word was concise. This was one letter he wanted to phrase perfectly. Vaughn slipped the whole folder inside his jacket, got out of the car and opened the passenger door. He unbuckled Sydney, and gently lifted her out of the car. Vaughn was amazed by how light she was, and how close she was to him. She barely stirred when he rang the doorbell. A pretty African-American girl answered the door.
"Oh my God! Sydney! Is she alright?"
Vaughn suddenly realized that a stranger coming like this to Francie's door, carrying Sydney, was unusual enough to worry anyone.
"Nothing's wrong. I'm sorry to scare you. You must be Sydney's roommate. Hi, I'm Richard Walker; I work with Sydney at the bank. After work, I offered her a ride home; she must have been really tired since she fell asleep in my car. Long day, I guess." He shrugged nonchalantly, like nothing really mattered.
Francie looked a little confused, but it seemed like she bought the story. "Why don't you come in and set her down on the couch?"
He grinned like a friendly coworker, nothing more and nothing less. "Thanks a lot. Oh yeah, I almost forgot," Vaughn said as he pulled the file out of his jacket, "Can you give this to Sydney as soon as she wakes up? It's really important; she'll understand what it is. Thanks again."
Vaughn walked out without glancing back, without thinking second thoughts, just like a man named Richard Walker would.
---------------------------------0----------------------------------
Sydney awoke, to bright sunlight and no memory of falling asleep or even coming home. And then she remembered, and understood, Vaughn must have brought her in. Damn, she had fallen asleep…and he had wanted to show her something. She ought to be crowned queen for sleeping at the wrong times.
"Hey, darling. Did you sleep well?"
She stretched like a cat, giving Francie one of her famous 'Sydney smiles' hiding all her apprehension regarding yesterday's events. "Yeah…did I miss anything?"
Francie chuckled, "Nothing unless you count ten hours. You slept like you'd never slept before. Your super hot escort left a file for you."
Sydney found a thin manila folder tossed into her hands. She opened it, and revealed stacks of receipts from Credit Dauphine, the "bank".
"Thanks Francie. So much boring paperwork, you know how it is."
Francie sighed and walked into the kitchen, mumbling to herself, "I don't know why you work yourself so hard, you ought to quit…"
Folded in between the papers was a note filled with handwriting she immediately recognized.
Sydney,
I was going to take you someplace special that I hope you would have liked, but you fell asleep. Don't worry, I understand, you don't have to apologize like I know you're going to do anyway, and I guess it'll just have to wait for another day. Regardless, there are still things I need to tell you. I think telling you will take a burden off both of our minds, and it isn't easy to say all of this, but I have to. I hope you can find it in your heart to understand.
I believe that when we are born, God or our creator, or whoever you believe designed this world and shaped our existence, provides us certain tools (you might call them) to live our lives. He gives us a face that can be ugly or beautiful, a body that may work or be handicapped, skills and talents which we can hone or ignore. What we do with what we have, I think that's life. Project Christmas was simply that, a tool placed into the schemes of our lives, something beyond our control. What we do with this knowledge is what will shape us.
Sydney, I know you so well. I know you'll blame yourself for what happened, the way you blamed yourself for your mother's crimes, the death of those FBI agents at Badenweiler. You need to know you're not superman, things happen, people make mistakes. I don't hold you responsible, and I don't want you to hurt yourself thinking that you are responsible for all the world's follies. I care about you too much to see you hurt like that.
But inadvertently, you have opened a door into my past. The knowledge of Project Christmas has given birth to curiosity within me, of what happened that summer, a summer that is missing from my memories. And when you're ready, and not before, I hope you'll tell me what you saw yesterday.
Most of all, Never forget how much I care about you Sydney. I will always be there when you need me.
~Vaughn
Tell me how you guys like it, and I'll continue :) I have some cool stuff planned.