CHAPTER SEVEN~ Syd
POV
The background sound of Vaughn typing on his laptop was
probably the only thing that kept me from hyperventilating. Well, okay so I
wasn't sure dogs could hyperventilate, but that really wasn't what my mind was
on right then.
So far that day things had gone from weird to weirder. As if
being turned into a dog wasn't weird enough, right? First Weiss implied that
Vaughn was in love with me, then his ex-girlfriend took me on a walk. Then when
she brought me home, after a quick stop at her apartment, I watched her and
Vaughn sort of break up again.
I'll admit I felt sorry for him, and a little guilty for
reasons that I'd rather not discuss. (It was COMPLETELY my dog brain's fault!)
After she left he went strait to the bathroom and I heard
the sound of water running a couple seconds later. He stayed in there for
nearly half an hour, in the mean time I wondered around yet again looking for
either a way to communicate with Vaughn or something to keep my bored mind
occupied. I inadvertently found both.
I stepped on a book lying on the floor next to his
nightstand. As I looked down the illustrations on the front struck me. Dogs are
colorblind, but I could tell it was brightly colored by how vivid the pictures
were. They showed a sequence of a boy slowly transforming into a poodle.
Talk about deja vu. I started wondering what the book was
about and why Vaughn had it. I flipped through the pages with my paw catching a
few words here and there, but not enough to make any sense.
Vaughn came out of the bathroom as I was struggling to make
out more words on one page. He seemed awfully amused to catch his dog trying to
read. I'm sure I would have found it very funny also had I not actually been
said dog.
I tried tapping the cover of the book thinking that might be
a way to clue him in, but it didn't work. Instead he sat down and started
saying something to me, actually probably more to himself, about wanting
someone to talk to. It caught my interest so I hopped up to sit next to him. He
was usually my confidant so it would be a change for me to be his. However, he
didn't know it was me he was talking to, which is what lead to my near heart
attack later.
He said he loved me. And this time was different then in
I whimpered involuntarily and started pacing even faster
than before. After his unknowing confession Vaughn left, returned with his
laptop, and started working on something. Meanwhile I leapt off the bed,
retreated to a small corner of the room, and started pacing around mindlessly.
Vaughn said he loved
me, Vaughn said he loved me, repeated in an endless loop in my head. I
forced myself to stop pacing and stand still for two seconds. This was getting
me no where. Not that I'd been accomplishing a whole lot before though.
I turned around when I heard the keying sound stop behind
me. I watched as he rubbed his eyes and laid his head against his left arm,
using his right to push the rolling mouse in the middle of the keyboard. He
scrolled through something for a while until his eye lids gradually dropped and
his hand relaxed. I stood for a couple of minutes after realizing that he was
asleep then slowly made my way back over to the bed.
I jumped up onto the end and laid down resting my head on my
paws. He was lying on his stomach with his head toward the foot of the bed. He
looked peaceful in his sleep, without the worry lines in his forehead that
appeared all too often on my account. I sighed.
All day I had been torn between being able to do things that
I never could normally and the insane fact that I had been turned into a dog,
but now I was certain.........I did not what to have to be his dog to be able
to sleep in Vaughn's bed.
Not that I had ever thought about it.
I snickered inside my head. You've got to know it's a lie I
couldn't even say that to myself without it sounding sarcastic. I wanted to be
human again. I wanted to be able to know the casual details of his life without
having to be lead around on a leash. I wanted Vaughn to tell me he loved me as
me instead of me as is dog.
I sighed again. The only problem was I had yet to even find
a way to let someone know that I had been turned into man's best friend, much
less a way to reverse it.
Suddenly an idea popped into my head. I stood up and walked
over to him. Careful not to wake him up I used my nose and front legs to push
the computer away from him just enough so that I could get in front of it.
Okay, that was easy
enough. But now what do I type?
What could someone possibly say to their handler when they
had been turned into their dog, then heard a confession of love without them
knowing that they were confessing it to anyone?
Finally, I decided and carefully placed my long nails on the
keys.
Vaughn POV
I woke up the next morning feeling oddly refreshed. I had
this feeling bubbling up inside of me... I wasn't sure what it was, but it had
to be a good sign. Maybe they'd found
With that hope in mind, I pushed past Donovan to grab my
laptop at the foot of my bed, not bothering to wonder how it had gotten there
anyway. I was about to check my e-mail to see if there was any new word on
'Word' was open, and a document was minimized in the corner
of the screen. I couldn't remember opening the word processing program the
night before. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes to see if I was imagining it, but
it was still there.
Curious, I clicked the 'restore' button.
I quickly read the few sentences that had been typed there.
The cursor was blinking at the end, as if flashing a warning sign.
"Oh, my God..." I whispered, the room around me
spinning. "This has to be a dream..."
Some of the words were spelled wrong, as though the person
who typed it couldn't quite work the keys. But I could decipher it. "Oh...
my... God..."
"VAugn-
You will tink this
issz crazyy byt i Am
~Syd"
I read and re-read the message probably about a million
times in ten seconds. Before I had a chance to think my cell phone blared from
across the room. I hoisted myself off the bed and cleared the room in a few
strides.
"Yeah?" I answered.
"The information you gathered from Irina was
correct," a voice said immediately cutting to the point.
"Jack?" I asked stupidly. I could practically see
his annoyed look since I obviously already knew it was him.
"Yes. The Rambaldi device does change people,"
Jack said with a pause before continuing, "into animals."
I didn't respond but instead glanced over toward the bed.
Donovan.....
"Vaughn?!" Jack snapped.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"A technician at SD-6 was transformed into a fly after
touching the outline on the Rambaldi device. Sloane was hesitant to believe at
first but
I caught my breath and cut in. "Jack listen, I'll meet
you at the warehouse in ten minutes," I said and shut off the phone
without waiting for a reply. Before leaving, I jammed my laptop's wire into the
printer and hit the 'print' button.
I attached a leash to Donovan's....
Time to take the double agent for her walk.
I tried not to think about it, then I grabbed my coat off
its hook, yanked the freshly printer paper out of the machine, and raced out
the door, DonovanSydneyWhoever pulling on the leash in my hand and racing ahead
of me.
When I finally arrived at the warehouse, Jack was already
there, seeming extremely distraught. But he couldn't be anywhere even close to
what I felt.
He glanced down at the leash I was holding, then to
DonovanSydneyWhoever. "Couldn't you have found a more appropriate time to
walk your dog, Mr. Vaughn?"
I took a deep breath, not sure how to get this out.
"You might not want to refer to her as 'your dog.' I doubt she'd
appreciate it."
"This is not the time to be worrying about the dog
feeling disrespected!" Jack commented forcefully. "We have to find
out what happened to
"Jack... first of all, it is the time to be worrying
about your dog. Disrespecting the dog is disrespecting your daughter. And with
that said, I'd like to add that I know what happened to
At first, Jack said nothing, just stared in confusion from
me, then to DonovanSydneyWhoever, then back to me. "Are you
saying..."
I didn't answer, just handed him the paper. "This was
typed on my laptop this morning."
He took the paper and read it quickly, eyes clouded.
He looked up at me and spoke slowly, "
At that DonovanSydneyWhoever barked loudly. Jack's piercing
gaze shot to him/her. He glanced away for a second, seeming almost freaked out.
You've got to know a situation is weird when that happens because Jack Bristow
and freaked out just do not go hand in hand!
"Jack, what are we supposed to do about this?" I
asked.
"SD-6 has the document that explains how to reverse the
effects. I'll have to find a way to get that document to the CIA."
"Alright... it shouldn't be too hard," I agreed,
then looked back down at SydneyDonovanWhoever. She/He stared back up at me, and
I swear I could actually see
Suddenly, I remembered our little conversation back at my
apartment, and almost slapped myself in the head. I mentally cringed and tried
to keep my face from turning red.
"Jack, what are we going to do about this?" I
finally asked.
"SD-6 has a document that explains how to reverse the
effects. They tried it on the technician and were successful in restoring him
normal," He explained, "It would be too dangerous for me to try to
steal the device back and deliver it to the CIA. I'll have to take
I nodded and slowly leaned down to remove the collar so that
Donovan's identification tags would not provide SD-6 with a link
As I watched them leaving the warehouse I bit my lip and
hopped that everything would go alright.
