5.
Vaughn had almost reached the point where he didn't think about Sydney Bristow every moment of the day.
Almost.
She still inhabited his thoughts, still had an influence on everything he did or said. Sometimes he would write e-mails or letters to her that were pages and pages long just to tell her what was going on before selecting them all and deleting them, letting them disappear off the face of the planet.
Like she did.
Exactly like she did.
Frustrated, he took out his laptop.
"I can't believe you left. You're just gone and even though you think that everything has died down and people have forgotten, you are wrong.
Everybody misses you or is mad at you or thinks that you are dead or wishes you were.
I just want you to come back. Yes your father died. But you are still an asset to this country and to your government and to your friends and to your mother and to me.
Okay. I've finally written it. I need you in my life. Not that you will ever know because this letter, like all the other ones, will disappear. Your beautiful eyes will never skim its words, your graceful hands will never touch its folds, you will never know the deepest aches of my heart.
But I had to write it anyway. For healing.
I guess that it's true that you never know what you have until it's gone. You're gone. And I have absolutely no idea how I was able to survive without you in my life.
Ignorance is bliss.
So now, even though you don't know it, I do. I, Michael Vaughn, am in love with you, Sydney Bristow, a former double agent for the CIA-"
He paused and then deleted what he just wrote. The fact that she used to CIA was irrelevant to the heart and emotion of his letter.
"I, Michael Vaughn, am in love with you, Sydney Bristow, a woman who lived life to the fullest, the woman of a hundred different colors and personalities, the woman who knows everything and has everything anyone could want.
I love you. "
He sighed. Even though she would never see this letter, he was glad that he had written it. He felt better already. And maybe, he would print it out and read it right before he went to bed. And then maybe he would dream of her. And maybe, in the dream, there would be no protocol keeping them apart. Maybe their families would be whole, their hearts would be whole, their lives would be whole, and they would be able to love each other.
Maybe.