Chapter 11

Vaughn walked into his room later that night trying to decide what to do. He tossed his coat in the direction of the closet and moved toward the bed, the sight that met him took his breathe away. Sydney was laying on her side with her knees drawn up to her chest and in her hands she held the picture of him and his mom. He pulled a chair from across the room and sat by the bed just watching her sleep. He began to think a little more about how insignificant this stupid fight was considering all that they'd had almost lost but on the other hand realized that she had been clinging to that final reality since the day he met her. Every time he looked back on that day he smiled, he had thought that she was a full-fledged crazy person until she made her little double/triple statement. She won him over with that mind boggling sentence and he knew then that they would end up together, eventually.

Well, here's eventually.

Vaughn sat for hours just staring at her as he'd done before, but this time it was different, she was peaceful. No nightmares, no restless tossing and turning, she was actually sleeping. He decided to try and get some sleep as well so that he'd be able to keep up with her in the morning to put this whole mess behind them and start their new life. He went around the other side of the bed and fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow.

When Sydney woke the next morning she slowly took in her surroundings realizing that she wasn't in her room but Vaughn's instead. The actuality of the previous night crowded her mind before she could think of anything else. She rolled to her other side and felt that her hand was being held by someone, staring at the man she knew she loved, the tears came quickly. He came back!

He looked so peaceful as he slept and she vowed from that day on she'd do whatever it took to make sure he looked like that always. She smoothed her hand over his forehead and smiled as she remembered all the times that same forehead had been covered in lines of worry over her. At her touch, Vaughn began to stir and as he did, his grip on her hand tightened as if he didn't want to let go. She waited, frightened, as to what he would say when he realized where he was.

'Good morning beautiful.' he said without hesitation.

'I…..' she began, but ended up throwing herself at him instead. Holding on for dear life and whispering into his neck, she began again,

'I am so sorry for all that I said, you deserve so much better than all this shit.'

'Let me ask you something and I want you to answer me honestly .' he said

'Do you really believe that there is anything out there that is better than you? As far as I am concerned, you are the best there is.' he said softly.

He had noticed that she had started to cry quietly when she was hugging him but now, with everything he had just said, she was crying all the harder. Eventually she ended up falling asleep again and Vaughn shifted so that they would both be comfortable. As time passed he came to the conclusion that they were not over any of their problems, they were all right there at the surface, raw and irritated. He promised himself right then that nothing was going to take her away from him so they would work all of it out no matter what. They both had secrets that were never going to heal if they didn't talk to each other.