Author's Notes: Sorry that I haven't posted in a while. It's taken me a
while to write this, so it's nice and long for you. Also, reviews are
appreciated.I'm sort of losing my readers.I guess.
SO PLEASE! Review. Also- I have the ending to this written, but I need some help getting there (see bottom for details.)
Also, thanks to Screen Names Are Tacky, black.Hawk, ploy, and Ryanne for reviewing. Enjoy the next bit!
Vaughn's POV
"Hey," I was visiting Elsa Caplan again. "How are you holding up?"
"Where's Aaron?"
"He's safe. Don't worry."
"I am worried."
I pressed a button on my watch, a pre-recorded statement and instructions. I talked over it to hide it from security, and Jack, who was probably watching somewhere.
"Elsa, don't react. You're listening to a recorded message through a sound director. You're the only one who can hear this. The CIA won't sanction an extraction team to get the locator. I'm going in myself. I need you to give me the locator codes. Cross your arms and tap them out to me with your index finger."
A guard was coming. I figured that Jack had definitely been watching and suspected that I was up to something.
My eyes never left her fingers as she tapped the codes out for me. A guard told me to back away from the glass, but I stayed put.
"Thank you," she said as she finished. I backed away. Sydney would be here in a mere twelve hours. We could get back to Spain in time. She'd be a bit jetlagged, but it's nothing new.
I had to find Jack. He should know that Syd was on her way back. I checked every place that I could think of, and then it dawned on me: Elsa Caplan. That's where I finally found him.
I got there in time to hear him say, "In fact, I probably care more about your son than you do."
"Excuse me," I said to the guard. "I need to speak with Director Bristow."
"He's a bit busy."
"It's urgent."
"Fine," the guard waved me through.
"Jack!" I yelled, dashing down the hall.
"Agent Vaughn, I'm busy," he continued his verbal assault.
"Jack!"
"Later!"
After another minute, I couldn't stand it anymore. "Jack!"
"What?" he turned to look at me, frustrated.
"Sydney's on her way back."
"What?"
"She's on her way back. She'll be here in the morning. Sark's coming too- he's turning himself in."
"What?"
"Sloane discovered them. Sydney's coming back, Sark's turning himself in."
"What's his motive?"
"Safety, I guess. His alliance with Sloane is gone. He could be helpful."
"And if he feeds us the wrong Intel, we could be walking into a trap."
"We could use him. Sydney seemed pretty confident that he could help," I said.
"Sydney's judgment is clouded."
"Jack, we won't make the same mistake twice."
"Are we sure, Agent Vaughn? No. Call Sydney back and tell her not to bring Sark in."
"Jack, it'll be fine. Sark will be more useful than not."
He sighed. "All right. Bring him in."
***
Sydney's POV
God, why was I doing this? Here I was, in the CIA parking garage, getting ready to call in my location so they could come and get Sark.
There was no need. A team of guards came out and took us hostage, checking us for weapons.
"Hey," I said. "Wait." I pulled out my badge. "I work here."
"Agent Bristow?" He looked over it carefully; checking it for flaws, as if he thought it was a fake. "Didn't you die a couple of weeks back?"
"I faked my death to get Intel on Sloane. I need to see my father," I gave him a dirty look.
As if on cue, my father and Vaughn entered the garage.
"Cuff him," my father commanded. The team did and left.
"Sydney!" He hugged me. "I'm so glad that you're alive."
"Where's Weiss? Isn't he happy to see me?" I asked.
"Assignment with his new partner. Come on, you can meet them over the radio. My asset's with them."
I smiled. "Can I?"
My father looked at me. "Kendall and I discussed this earlier. You have a day off, but you are due back tomorrow."
"All right," I smiled at Vaughn.
"Come on, Weiss will be happy to hear from you."
"It'll be nice to talk to him." We entered the elevator. Immediately after the doors closed, Vaughn enveloped me in a tight embrace and kissed me.
I kissed him back, my hands instinctively moving from around his neck into his blonde-brown hair, my fingers running wildly through it.
"I love you," he said in between kisses.
"Do you?" I asked.
"We need to get some control here, Syd. We're five floors away, and someone might get on.
"Get control?" I asked, filled with a warm feeling. "Vaughn, I believe that you started this. It's your fault."
"I know," he said with a smile.
I fell forward as the elevator stopped abruptly. Vaughn caught me and helped me to my feet.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Look around, Syd. The elevator stopped. We're stuck."
"Is that such a bad thing?" I asked.
My cell phone rang. Kendall. Great.
"Hello?"
"Agent Bristow. Are you and Agent Vaughn all right?" We're stuck in an elevator, believe me, Kendall, we're more than "all right."
"Yeah, how long until you can get us out? This is supposed to be my day off." "We called a few mechanics. Ours are on vacation."
You picked this week to put them on vacation? Whatever happened to the backup mechanics? That's an excellent idea, especially when the elevator breaks down.
"How long?" I repeated.
"An hour to get here and add in the repair time. Two hours, probably. Will you and Vaughn be all right?" he asked again.
"We'll be fine, don't worry."
"All right. Good luck."
I sat down next to Vaughn against the wall. He put his arm around me and I moved up against him. We hadn't done this in a while. God, how I love him. How could I have ever felt like this with Sark? Still.
"Syd?"
"Yeah?" He kissed me.
I smiled and kissed him back. He pressed me up against him and I settled my head under his chin, in a spot that seemed to be made for me.
I closed me eyes, just resting. God, how I love him.
"Syd?"
"Hmm?"
"We have a bit of a problem."
"Yeah?"
"When you faked your death, the corpse that we buried, thinking it was you.it was pregnant."
"And?"
"The office knows about us. They agreed to forget protocol just this once. Now that you're back.they might take action."
"You're sure?"
"To be blunt, Kendall came to me and flat-out accused me of being the father."
"We'll have this argument with him again, someday, you know."
"Hopefully after we're married, Syd. Not anytime soon."
"Yeah."
"Syd, will you marry me?"
I hesitated. Could I? Could I give up my growing attraction to Sark for Vaughn? Growing attraction. That's all it was, which meant I could stop it before it got out of hand. Could I say yes to Vaughn?
"Could you give me some time? I asked. "I need to think things through." He nodded. He understood where I was coming from. For the first time in my life, I was confused. Sydney Bristow never gets confused. Sydney Bristow also never gets scared of the future.
***
We finally got out of the elevator two hours later. We got onto the radio immediately and Weiss sounded more than thrilled to hear from us.
"I'm back!" I cheerfully announced to Weiss.
"Back from the dead, eh Syd?"
"Yep, aren't you happy to see me?"
"Or hear you," he said.
"Yeah."
"Welcome back. Agent Bristow, this is Agent Colleen Pagnotta. She's Vaughn's new asset. You'll probably meet here when we get back."
"Hi," I heard a voice come over the radio.
"And this is Agent Abbie Mason, my partner."
"Hi," another cheerful voice came over the radio.
She's happy. She must be the blonde that I saw.
"Vaughn, we've just spotted Andrews. We're moving in."
"Where are you?" I asked.
"Spain. We're closing in. Going radio-silent."
"Come on," Vaughn said quietly. "I got the locator codes and you know where Caplan is at. We're going to Spain and pulling out Caplan. We've got twelve hours." I nodded and we headed to the airport.
***
"Hurry," he tossed me a gun and a backpack. I put the backpack on over my bulletproof vest and tucked the gun at my side.
We quietly got in and I saw my mother, guarding Caplan. Vaughn fired at her and she ducked under the desk.
"One hour," he said, splitting away from me to search for her backup.
I held her at gunpoint, grabbed her gun and tossed her a pair of handcuffs.
"Cuff yourself to the pole," I said, my voice slightly cracking.
"Look away," I told Caplan.
"Hey," he grabbed my arm. "You should know that I was recruited to the NSA six years ago, although they'll deny any affiliation with me. I know about Elsa. Don't hurt her."
I nodded, even though I hadn't the slightest idea what he was talking about. I assumed that Vaughn would catch me up later.
I slip open Caplan's wrist, wincing as it became bloody. I quickly located the tracker and removed it, tossing it off to the side.
Vaughn appeared and freed Caplan and handed him a bandage. I considered freeing my mother and taking her back to Kendall, but then I'd have twice as much fun at the Ops Center.
Sloane appeared in the doorway and fired at us. We dodged a few bullets and ran, finally opting to leave my mother where she was. We took out the guard and Caplan grabbed a gun. He and Vaughn shot back and Sloane as I worked on getting us the the extraction point.
We made it to the chopped that Vaughn had called from one of his contacts and quickly climbed aboard. Kendall was inside, as was Sark.
Wait- this wasn't right. Vaughn and I took off without the help of the CIA. Dad and Kendall didn't even know where we were.
"Mr. Caplan," Kendall acknowledged Caplan warmly, something that was all too new to us. "We are on our way to LA. You will be reunited with your wife soon. Agent Vaughn, Agent Bristow, come with me. Oops. We're in trouble.
"What the hell were you thinking?" he exploded as we entered a room.
"We rescued Caplan, didn't we?" asked Vaughn.
"Yes, after we told you to drop the mission. You're lucky that we received a call from your contact and we were on our way to find and extract Agent Weiss's team and that Mr. Sark knew where you'd be. You'd have been on your own."
"We were doing fine!" I protested, supporting Vaughn.
"Since I am no longer in control of the Ops Center, your disciplinary action doesn't rest with me. Director Bristow will take care of that."
"Wait- what?" My dad, the director?
"Sydney, your dad became the director shortly after you left," said Vaughn. "I'll just warn you, I don't think that he'll take this too lightly, Agent Bristow. He already stood up for you once when you and Agent Vaughn were discovered. I don't think that he'll convince Devlin to let it slide twice."
Shot down. "How far are we from Weiss?"
"About an hour. The team is trying to take out Andrews."
"Take him out?"
***
Spain
Weiss and the team crept closer to the room where Andrews sat. Their guns were ready and Weiss was about to give the signal.
Colleen was excited. Kendall had instructed her to pull away from the group and find Andrews herself. She was more than ready.
Weiss and Abbie turned to the left and Colleen ducked to the right. She snuck around a corner and came face to face with the very man that she was hunting; Andrews himself.
Yes, she thought to herself. I've got this!
"What are you doing here?" he asked, holding her at gunpoint.
She didn't lower her gun. Should she shoot him? She kicked at him and knocked his gun away. She fought him, each backing up and moving forward until finally, she pinned him to the ground at gunpoint.
"Move, and I will shoot," she warned.
"Can you get your foot off of my chest?" he asked in a heavily accented Scottish voice.
She moved her foot and he grabbed it, making her trip and fall to the ground. He leapt up and grabbed his gun and true to her word, she fired. He fell to the ground, clutching his leg. She fired again, hitting him in the chest.
He didn't move as she stood up and Weiss and Abbie dashed into the room.
"What happened?" Weiss asked.
"He found me, tripped me, and then I threatened to shoot him if he moved. He moved, I shot."
"Weiss stood, dumbfounded.
"Come on," Abbie said gently pushing him to the door. "Kendall's waiting."
***
Sydney's POV
Twenty-four hours later, we were back in LA. Elsa and Neil Caplan had just left for a CIA safe house. They had opted for witness protection and were at the safe house until we could get them a new alias.
Kendall was not happy, to say the least. After he had his fun yelling at us on the plane, he yelled at us some more at the Ops Center. When my dad found out, he just looked at me in that was that parents look at you when they're disappointed. He didn't even yell at us, just gave me a disappointed look and stayed silent. He wasn't happy either. I hated it when he didn't say anything.
I decided to abandon the silence and staring and go and debrief Sark. He had agreed to only speak to me. What's with the criminals and only wanting to talk to me? First my mother, now Sark.
The gates clanged open and suddenly, I wished that it was my mother inside that cell, and not Sark. He was in the same position that I usually found my mother in; eyes closed, lost in thought, meditating.
His eyes opened slowly as he took in the sight of me in front of him.
"Hey," I said softly. "How are you holding up?"
"All right, I guess." He smiled. "It's protection from Sloane, but it's no five-star hotel."
"You'd think that the CIA could afford to give their prisoners better living conditions," I joked.
"Yeah."
"Kendall wants me- or rather my father wants me to debrief you after my lunch break. Do you want anything? I know that the food here isn't exactly first-rate, and you did save Vaughn's and my life. The least I can do is get you a burger or something."
"Yeah," he said thoughtfully, "cheeseburger with the works."
"You've got it. I'll be back in an hour."
***
Vaughn's POV
I stood in front of the camera and listened to Syd talk to Sark.
"She's offering him a burger?" Weiss came up behind me. "Geez, she's awful giving lately. First it was you and the drawer, and now it's Sark and a cheeseburger. I can see it now- she'll win the Nobel Peace Prize. solve world hunger by giving away cheeseburgers."
"I told you not to mention the drawer," I muttered. She nodded at something and started heading back up. I moved away from Weiss and the camera and met her at the stairwell.
"Hey," I said. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "I'm craving a cheeseburger."
I'll bet. "All right. Cheeseburgers it is." I knew what she wanted the cheeseburger.
We drove and arrived at a small restaurant. We sat down and got our food. I watched her dig into the cheeseburger and she put it down as she noticed me watching her.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing."
Uh oh. Her eyes got serious. She's going to tell me something.
"Vaughn, I need to tell you something.I've thought about you proposing to me, and I've decided.to say yes."
I felt my eyes light up. "Really?"
She smiled. "Really."
"Then I guess I can give you this." I pulled the engagement ring that I had bought from my coat pocket. I slipped it on her finger.
She smiled. "We should get back."
"Yeah," I agreed.
"Hang on," she ordered another cheeseburger, to go. "For later. In case I get hungry."
I'm sure that I had an odd look on my face, but I shook it off. She got the burger and started to get up.
"Don't leave without me," I said teasingly.
"I wouldn't dare," she said with a smile.
***
Sydney's POV
I handed Sark his burger through the hole in the cell.
"Thanks," he smiled.
"No problem," I said as he bit into it.
"Kendall wants me to debrief you."
"After this."
"In about an hour. Someone will escort you upstairs."
"All right."
I turned and left.
"I told him," I said to my father.
"And you think he'll cooperate with us?"
"Yes, I'm pretty sure."
"All right. You're in charge of this. We'll be there, in case."
"Dad?" I took a deep breath. "Vaughn asked me to marry him."
"And?" he asked expectantly.
"I said yes."
"Good," he said with what I thought was an actual smile. "Because I wouldn't have it any other way."
Okay, you've reached the author's notes at the end. If you haven't found out yet, Abbie (Weiss's girlfriend, sort of) is none other than my editor and would like nothing more to see herself hook up with Weiss. I'd like your opinions on that. I'd also like some ideas for future events (hopefully with Syd/Sark, although with Syd and Vaughn's engagement, how that's going to work is beyond me, but oh well.) Anyway, ideas are appreciated, and so are reviews, so please review and if you have any ideas, please send them to lab60014@owc.net
Thanks!
SO PLEASE! Review. Also- I have the ending to this written, but I need some help getting there (see bottom for details.)
Also, thanks to Screen Names Are Tacky, black.Hawk, ploy, and Ryanne for reviewing. Enjoy the next bit!
Vaughn's POV
"Hey," I was visiting Elsa Caplan again. "How are you holding up?"
"Where's Aaron?"
"He's safe. Don't worry."
"I am worried."
I pressed a button on my watch, a pre-recorded statement and instructions. I talked over it to hide it from security, and Jack, who was probably watching somewhere.
"Elsa, don't react. You're listening to a recorded message through a sound director. You're the only one who can hear this. The CIA won't sanction an extraction team to get the locator. I'm going in myself. I need you to give me the locator codes. Cross your arms and tap them out to me with your index finger."
A guard was coming. I figured that Jack had definitely been watching and suspected that I was up to something.
My eyes never left her fingers as she tapped the codes out for me. A guard told me to back away from the glass, but I stayed put.
"Thank you," she said as she finished. I backed away. Sydney would be here in a mere twelve hours. We could get back to Spain in time. She'd be a bit jetlagged, but it's nothing new.
I had to find Jack. He should know that Syd was on her way back. I checked every place that I could think of, and then it dawned on me: Elsa Caplan. That's where I finally found him.
I got there in time to hear him say, "In fact, I probably care more about your son than you do."
"Excuse me," I said to the guard. "I need to speak with Director Bristow."
"He's a bit busy."
"It's urgent."
"Fine," the guard waved me through.
"Jack!" I yelled, dashing down the hall.
"Agent Vaughn, I'm busy," he continued his verbal assault.
"Jack!"
"Later!"
After another minute, I couldn't stand it anymore. "Jack!"
"What?" he turned to look at me, frustrated.
"Sydney's on her way back."
"What?"
"She's on her way back. She'll be here in the morning. Sark's coming too- he's turning himself in."
"What?"
"Sloane discovered them. Sydney's coming back, Sark's turning himself in."
"What's his motive?"
"Safety, I guess. His alliance with Sloane is gone. He could be helpful."
"And if he feeds us the wrong Intel, we could be walking into a trap."
"We could use him. Sydney seemed pretty confident that he could help," I said.
"Sydney's judgment is clouded."
"Jack, we won't make the same mistake twice."
"Are we sure, Agent Vaughn? No. Call Sydney back and tell her not to bring Sark in."
"Jack, it'll be fine. Sark will be more useful than not."
He sighed. "All right. Bring him in."
***
Sydney's POV
God, why was I doing this? Here I was, in the CIA parking garage, getting ready to call in my location so they could come and get Sark.
There was no need. A team of guards came out and took us hostage, checking us for weapons.
"Hey," I said. "Wait." I pulled out my badge. "I work here."
"Agent Bristow?" He looked over it carefully; checking it for flaws, as if he thought it was a fake. "Didn't you die a couple of weeks back?"
"I faked my death to get Intel on Sloane. I need to see my father," I gave him a dirty look.
As if on cue, my father and Vaughn entered the garage.
"Cuff him," my father commanded. The team did and left.
"Sydney!" He hugged me. "I'm so glad that you're alive."
"Where's Weiss? Isn't he happy to see me?" I asked.
"Assignment with his new partner. Come on, you can meet them over the radio. My asset's with them."
I smiled. "Can I?"
My father looked at me. "Kendall and I discussed this earlier. You have a day off, but you are due back tomorrow."
"All right," I smiled at Vaughn.
"Come on, Weiss will be happy to hear from you."
"It'll be nice to talk to him." We entered the elevator. Immediately after the doors closed, Vaughn enveloped me in a tight embrace and kissed me.
I kissed him back, my hands instinctively moving from around his neck into his blonde-brown hair, my fingers running wildly through it.
"I love you," he said in between kisses.
"Do you?" I asked.
"We need to get some control here, Syd. We're five floors away, and someone might get on.
"Get control?" I asked, filled with a warm feeling. "Vaughn, I believe that you started this. It's your fault."
"I know," he said with a smile.
I fell forward as the elevator stopped abruptly. Vaughn caught me and helped me to my feet.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Look around, Syd. The elevator stopped. We're stuck."
"Is that such a bad thing?" I asked.
My cell phone rang. Kendall. Great.
"Hello?"
"Agent Bristow. Are you and Agent Vaughn all right?" We're stuck in an elevator, believe me, Kendall, we're more than "all right."
"Yeah, how long until you can get us out? This is supposed to be my day off." "We called a few mechanics. Ours are on vacation."
You picked this week to put them on vacation? Whatever happened to the backup mechanics? That's an excellent idea, especially when the elevator breaks down.
"How long?" I repeated.
"An hour to get here and add in the repair time. Two hours, probably. Will you and Vaughn be all right?" he asked again.
"We'll be fine, don't worry."
"All right. Good luck."
I sat down next to Vaughn against the wall. He put his arm around me and I moved up against him. We hadn't done this in a while. God, how I love him. How could I have ever felt like this with Sark? Still.
"Syd?"
"Yeah?" He kissed me.
I smiled and kissed him back. He pressed me up against him and I settled my head under his chin, in a spot that seemed to be made for me.
I closed me eyes, just resting. God, how I love him.
"Syd?"
"Hmm?"
"We have a bit of a problem."
"Yeah?"
"When you faked your death, the corpse that we buried, thinking it was you.it was pregnant."
"And?"
"The office knows about us. They agreed to forget protocol just this once. Now that you're back.they might take action."
"You're sure?"
"To be blunt, Kendall came to me and flat-out accused me of being the father."
"We'll have this argument with him again, someday, you know."
"Hopefully after we're married, Syd. Not anytime soon."
"Yeah."
"Syd, will you marry me?"
I hesitated. Could I? Could I give up my growing attraction to Sark for Vaughn? Growing attraction. That's all it was, which meant I could stop it before it got out of hand. Could I say yes to Vaughn?
"Could you give me some time? I asked. "I need to think things through." He nodded. He understood where I was coming from. For the first time in my life, I was confused. Sydney Bristow never gets confused. Sydney Bristow also never gets scared of the future.
***
We finally got out of the elevator two hours later. We got onto the radio immediately and Weiss sounded more than thrilled to hear from us.
"I'm back!" I cheerfully announced to Weiss.
"Back from the dead, eh Syd?"
"Yep, aren't you happy to see me?"
"Or hear you," he said.
"Yeah."
"Welcome back. Agent Bristow, this is Agent Colleen Pagnotta. She's Vaughn's new asset. You'll probably meet here when we get back."
"Hi," I heard a voice come over the radio.
"And this is Agent Abbie Mason, my partner."
"Hi," another cheerful voice came over the radio.
She's happy. She must be the blonde that I saw.
"Vaughn, we've just spotted Andrews. We're moving in."
"Where are you?" I asked.
"Spain. We're closing in. Going radio-silent."
"Come on," Vaughn said quietly. "I got the locator codes and you know where Caplan is at. We're going to Spain and pulling out Caplan. We've got twelve hours." I nodded and we headed to the airport.
***
"Hurry," he tossed me a gun and a backpack. I put the backpack on over my bulletproof vest and tucked the gun at my side.
We quietly got in and I saw my mother, guarding Caplan. Vaughn fired at her and she ducked under the desk.
"One hour," he said, splitting away from me to search for her backup.
I held her at gunpoint, grabbed her gun and tossed her a pair of handcuffs.
"Cuff yourself to the pole," I said, my voice slightly cracking.
"Look away," I told Caplan.
"Hey," he grabbed my arm. "You should know that I was recruited to the NSA six years ago, although they'll deny any affiliation with me. I know about Elsa. Don't hurt her."
I nodded, even though I hadn't the slightest idea what he was talking about. I assumed that Vaughn would catch me up later.
I slip open Caplan's wrist, wincing as it became bloody. I quickly located the tracker and removed it, tossing it off to the side.
Vaughn appeared and freed Caplan and handed him a bandage. I considered freeing my mother and taking her back to Kendall, but then I'd have twice as much fun at the Ops Center.
Sloane appeared in the doorway and fired at us. We dodged a few bullets and ran, finally opting to leave my mother where she was. We took out the guard and Caplan grabbed a gun. He and Vaughn shot back and Sloane as I worked on getting us the the extraction point.
We made it to the chopped that Vaughn had called from one of his contacts and quickly climbed aboard. Kendall was inside, as was Sark.
Wait- this wasn't right. Vaughn and I took off without the help of the CIA. Dad and Kendall didn't even know where we were.
"Mr. Caplan," Kendall acknowledged Caplan warmly, something that was all too new to us. "We are on our way to LA. You will be reunited with your wife soon. Agent Vaughn, Agent Bristow, come with me. Oops. We're in trouble.
"What the hell were you thinking?" he exploded as we entered a room.
"We rescued Caplan, didn't we?" asked Vaughn.
"Yes, after we told you to drop the mission. You're lucky that we received a call from your contact and we were on our way to find and extract Agent Weiss's team and that Mr. Sark knew where you'd be. You'd have been on your own."
"We were doing fine!" I protested, supporting Vaughn.
"Since I am no longer in control of the Ops Center, your disciplinary action doesn't rest with me. Director Bristow will take care of that."
"Wait- what?" My dad, the director?
"Sydney, your dad became the director shortly after you left," said Vaughn. "I'll just warn you, I don't think that he'll take this too lightly, Agent Bristow. He already stood up for you once when you and Agent Vaughn were discovered. I don't think that he'll convince Devlin to let it slide twice."
Shot down. "How far are we from Weiss?"
"About an hour. The team is trying to take out Andrews."
"Take him out?"
***
Spain
Weiss and the team crept closer to the room where Andrews sat. Their guns were ready and Weiss was about to give the signal.
Colleen was excited. Kendall had instructed her to pull away from the group and find Andrews herself. She was more than ready.
Weiss and Abbie turned to the left and Colleen ducked to the right. She snuck around a corner and came face to face with the very man that she was hunting; Andrews himself.
Yes, she thought to herself. I've got this!
"What are you doing here?" he asked, holding her at gunpoint.
She didn't lower her gun. Should she shoot him? She kicked at him and knocked his gun away. She fought him, each backing up and moving forward until finally, she pinned him to the ground at gunpoint.
"Move, and I will shoot," she warned.
"Can you get your foot off of my chest?" he asked in a heavily accented Scottish voice.
She moved her foot and he grabbed it, making her trip and fall to the ground. He leapt up and grabbed his gun and true to her word, she fired. He fell to the ground, clutching his leg. She fired again, hitting him in the chest.
He didn't move as she stood up and Weiss and Abbie dashed into the room.
"What happened?" Weiss asked.
"He found me, tripped me, and then I threatened to shoot him if he moved. He moved, I shot."
"Weiss stood, dumbfounded.
"Come on," Abbie said gently pushing him to the door. "Kendall's waiting."
***
Sydney's POV
Twenty-four hours later, we were back in LA. Elsa and Neil Caplan had just left for a CIA safe house. They had opted for witness protection and were at the safe house until we could get them a new alias.
Kendall was not happy, to say the least. After he had his fun yelling at us on the plane, he yelled at us some more at the Ops Center. When my dad found out, he just looked at me in that was that parents look at you when they're disappointed. He didn't even yell at us, just gave me a disappointed look and stayed silent. He wasn't happy either. I hated it when he didn't say anything.
I decided to abandon the silence and staring and go and debrief Sark. He had agreed to only speak to me. What's with the criminals and only wanting to talk to me? First my mother, now Sark.
The gates clanged open and suddenly, I wished that it was my mother inside that cell, and not Sark. He was in the same position that I usually found my mother in; eyes closed, lost in thought, meditating.
His eyes opened slowly as he took in the sight of me in front of him.
"Hey," I said softly. "How are you holding up?"
"All right, I guess." He smiled. "It's protection from Sloane, but it's no five-star hotel."
"You'd think that the CIA could afford to give their prisoners better living conditions," I joked.
"Yeah."
"Kendall wants me- or rather my father wants me to debrief you after my lunch break. Do you want anything? I know that the food here isn't exactly first-rate, and you did save Vaughn's and my life. The least I can do is get you a burger or something."
"Yeah," he said thoughtfully, "cheeseburger with the works."
"You've got it. I'll be back in an hour."
***
Vaughn's POV
I stood in front of the camera and listened to Syd talk to Sark.
"She's offering him a burger?" Weiss came up behind me. "Geez, she's awful giving lately. First it was you and the drawer, and now it's Sark and a cheeseburger. I can see it now- she'll win the Nobel Peace Prize. solve world hunger by giving away cheeseburgers."
"I told you not to mention the drawer," I muttered. She nodded at something and started heading back up. I moved away from Weiss and the camera and met her at the stairwell.
"Hey," I said. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "I'm craving a cheeseburger."
I'll bet. "All right. Cheeseburgers it is." I knew what she wanted the cheeseburger.
We drove and arrived at a small restaurant. We sat down and got our food. I watched her dig into the cheeseburger and she put it down as she noticed me watching her.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing."
Uh oh. Her eyes got serious. She's going to tell me something.
"Vaughn, I need to tell you something.I've thought about you proposing to me, and I've decided.to say yes."
I felt my eyes light up. "Really?"
She smiled. "Really."
"Then I guess I can give you this." I pulled the engagement ring that I had bought from my coat pocket. I slipped it on her finger.
She smiled. "We should get back."
"Yeah," I agreed.
"Hang on," she ordered another cheeseburger, to go. "For later. In case I get hungry."
I'm sure that I had an odd look on my face, but I shook it off. She got the burger and started to get up.
"Don't leave without me," I said teasingly.
"I wouldn't dare," she said with a smile.
***
Sydney's POV
I handed Sark his burger through the hole in the cell.
"Thanks," he smiled.
"No problem," I said as he bit into it.
"Kendall wants me to debrief you."
"After this."
"In about an hour. Someone will escort you upstairs."
"All right."
I turned and left.
"I told him," I said to my father.
"And you think he'll cooperate with us?"
"Yes, I'm pretty sure."
"All right. You're in charge of this. We'll be there, in case."
"Dad?" I took a deep breath. "Vaughn asked me to marry him."
"And?" he asked expectantly.
"I said yes."
"Good," he said with what I thought was an actual smile. "Because I wouldn't have it any other way."
Okay, you've reached the author's notes at the end. If you haven't found out yet, Abbie (Weiss's girlfriend, sort of) is none other than my editor and would like nothing more to see herself hook up with Weiss. I'd like your opinions on that. I'd also like some ideas for future events (hopefully with Syd/Sark, although with Syd and Vaughn's engagement, how that's going to work is beyond me, but oh well.) Anyway, ideas are appreciated, and so are reviews, so please review and if you have any ideas, please send them to lab60014@owc.net
Thanks!