Chapter 2
'Too late.' she whispered.
'What?' he said knowing in his broken heart what she was about to say.
'Too late.' she said louder, looking at him with defiance.
'What the hell happened Syd?' he asked feeling sick to his stomach.
She waited a moment, then looked back up at him. The look that she gave him wasn't the defiant, strong Syd he knew and had just seen, but a broken, defeated Syd that he couldn't bare to imagine existed. She must have seen the look of pity on his face because she snorted in disgust then began.
'The mission was going along as planned like I told you before and I was almost finished retrieving the intel that SD-6 wanted and that the CIA needed. I remember thinking to myself, Man! This one was easy.' She looked at him, tables turned and deadpanned,
'Famous last words, huh?'
He didn't laugh but his eyes begged her to continue.
She sighed and started to speak again as silent tears made their way down her face.
When did she start crying Vaughn thought.
'How could I have been so stupid!?!' her eyes were the ones doing the begging now.
The lack of conviction in her voice stunned Vaughn, usually something like this would have made her angry and upset. Instead she looked so tired and spent, she looked used. This was definitely a side of her that he never wanted to see again after this.
'I'm supposed to be the best right? I mean, I'm KICK ASS Sydney Bristow aren't I? I should have know better....' she trailed off hiding her face from him, he knew she never wanted him to see her weak. This was about as weak as you could get.
It took everything in him not to walk over, gather her in his arms and make all of the bad things go away. He needed to hear everything so he could help her, so he gave a wan smile when she finally looked at him again hoping to encourage her to continue.
'I let my guard down Vaughn. I took one second that wasn't mine to take, and can you believe that I used it to think about what I was going to do when I got home...'
'And...' he said, willing his voice not to break.
'I never heard them coming.' she said quietly staring at nothing in particular, shuddering as she remembered.
'Who Syd?' he asked as gently as he could.
'I don't know who they were!' she said exasperated as she got off the table and began to pace again.
'I assume they work for The Man, but I don't know... No one else knew I was there except SD-6 and you.'
She started giggling manically through her tears and said,
'Man! one of them could really pack a punch.'
Again Vaughn didn't laugh.
She shook herself back to reality and sobered as she continued.
'There were about three of them but I just couldn't take them all, I was so tired. They had the element of surprise, and I gave it to them, so by the time I had the first guy down, the other two had me down. I kinda think I knew I was beat then and I just gave up. The next thing I remember, I woke up in a dark cold cell...'
As she sat back down, Vaughn began to pace trying to digest what she was telling him. It wasn't so bad, they locked her up and she escaped, nothing she couldn't handle. His subconscious laughed at him when he tried this rationale.
'They didn't just lock me up Vaughn, I could have handled that, Hell! Anyone could.'
He stopped pacing and stared at her, realization slapping him in the face as her words slowly sank into him.
'You were tortured for three months!' he whispered.
She didn't say a word, she wouldn't even look at him.
The wave of anger came first, then the disgust. Not of her though, never of her. He was sick to his stomach with the thought of what had happened to her. The only thing that ran through his head was Why? Why her?...
Before he could think he was across the warehouse floor and had her in his arms swearing to himself that nothing was going to hurt her ever again. As his arms closed around her, she cried out in pain.
'Syd...!' his confusion evident, he finally realized that he had hurt her. The weight of everything she had told him came together and kicked him square in the gut.
'Let's go.' he said quietly as the anger bubbled beneath the surface.
