Disclaimer in previous chapters.
Authors Notes- I want to thank all of those that reviewed my story. You are all awesome and I really appreciate you taking the time to let me know that you liked my story. It means a lot to me. I have noticed a few things still wrong in previous chapters so those will be corrected soon, including the title of the last chapter. I must have been confused when I posted it.
Thanks again to those of you still reading this story I hope you like this next installment.
Chapter 5- A Time to Live
Michael Vaughn and Agent Malone entered the base ops room to applause and cheers. Vaughn took no notice of those around him and headed straight for Jack Bristow.
"Jack"
"Agent Vaughn. Glad to see you well." Jack Bristow had a large smile on his face. "I think there are a few people here you need to talk to."
Vaughn turned and happiness seemed to flush across his face when he saw Weiss standing in the room.
"Weiss" he said sounding a bit unsure of the reception he was about to receive. His consternation would not last long as Weiss enveloped him in a long and very tight bear hug.
"You, my friend, have so much explaining to do, it's going to take at least 3 beers to get through it all."
"Yeah, more like a whole six pack. Its good to see you, good to be back." Vaughn answered. Malone noticed that Sydney Bristow had stayed back in the corner, almost like she was trying to hide herself from the man who had come back from the dead. Malone was curious as to her reaction, seeing as how her voice over his comm link was full of joy and hope, and this woman hiding in the corner caught him by surprise.
Malone focus was directed back to the two reunited friends when he heard an overly loud laugh.
"Oh there is no way in hell you could drink me under the table, you have always been a lightweight." Weiss jokingly said to Vaughn. Malone noticed Weiss was not quiet making eye contact with Agent Vaughn, almost as if he was uncomfortable. It was understandable considering that Vaughn had been thought dead for the last 5 years
"Me, the lightweight, allow me to remind you of the time I had to carry you out of bar instead of allowing you to make the biggest the mistake of your life with a woman who was easily twice your size and definitely twice as ugly as you!!!" The two friends laughed together for a few seconds and the room again grew quiet. "How is she?" Vaughn asked Weiss in soft apprehensive voice. Weiss didn't answer just jerked his head to the left. Vaughn turned slowly and looked in the direction Weiss had indicated. Malone sat and stared and the scene unfolding before him. Vaughn just stood there as if in a trance and looked at the woman in the corner.
"Syd" his voice sounded strangled, he could barely get her name out. Malone watched as Sydney's face went through an array of emotions, joy, fear, apprehension and finally anger. She was pissed and it was easy to tell, even to Malone, who barely knew her. Sydney walked slowly up to Vaughn and stared into his eyes for what seemed like an hour but was probably only 2 minutes. At last she grabbed him to her and embraced him. He immediately hugged her back and everyone could see the tears in his eyes. Then suddenly she stepped back and slapped him, hard. He did nothing to stop her as she struck him again. Finally she turned and walked out the door. Vaughn did not make a move to go after her; he just turned back to Weiss. Malone saw Weiss stare at the door Sydney left through as if unsure what to do at this point. He assumed that Weiss' desire to talk to his long lost friend won out when the AD turned back to Vaughn and began speaking.
"So man, what's the deal, where the hell have you been?" Weiss asked, as if Vaughn getting slapped by another agent was a regular occurrence.
Vaughn launched into the story of his capture by his father. "He shot me but it must have missed all my vitals, I still don't know how I survived but I did. My father called in a doctor when he realized I wasn't going to die and they treated me. Once I was stronger they placed me in what can only be described as a cell. The agents that were with me with on the mission were in the other cells around me. We were able to talk to each other to keep sane." He continued on, " The food was awful but it got us through, we talked about home, wives, kids, girlfriends, anything and everything to keep the hope alive that one day we would get of there. Then one day, one of my father's goons came down and pulled me out of my cell. I had not seen my father since that first day but his men took me to a room and left me. There I found shampoo and basic toiletries. It was nicer in amenities but I had noone to talk to. They left me food through a hole in the door, like a mail slot." Vaughn hesitated for a moment "I started to go crazy; I had noone to talk to. I started talking to myself and then I started talking to imaginary people, to you to Syd. I knew they weren't real but it's all I had. I felt so alone, all the time; it was a form of sensory deprivation I guess. I started make tools to cut myself, just to feel something. The objects in my room stared talking back to me; I got quite close with a lamp. We're going to keep in touch" Vaughn said the last sentence jokingly, trying to ease the tension in the room. He ran his hands through his hair in what seemed to be an impatient but calming gesturing. Malone was sure that this must be difficult to talk about but Vaughn seemed to be handling it well. Occasionally he would glance nervously around the room but besides that he seemed at ease, which surprised Malone.
"You always were the weird one in the Company, but I am glad you made such good friends, does that lamp have a bed stand I could call, it's so lonely at the top." Weiss joked
"I would hate to see you after that, noone to listen to your horrible jokes, you'd be stark raving mad after a day." Vaughn joked, "Anyway, I don't know how long I was there by myself but one day my father came into the room, I was so happy to talk to someone other than myself, but he only stayed for a few minutes and when he left I craved more contact. I guess that was the point. I never even thought to ask why he was alive I just wanted to connect with someone, anyone. After that, he would come by and we would talk about, well nothing really, just talk. Then one day he invited me to dinner in the main dining room. I never even thought to look around I was just starved for human interaction." Vaughn seemed almost embarrassed. "I never realized how important human contact was, until it was gone. I found myself thinking all day about what I wanted to say, what could I say to get more company. My father slowly let me have more and more time out of the room. And I was so grateful that I did anything he asked of me. I had no idea how long I had been gone or what year it was, nothing was the same. It was then that I started getting angry, I mean where the hell was everyone. Did they not even think to try and recover my body? It pissed me off."
"Vaughn, we thought you were dead, the Agency didn't want to lose any more people"
"Thanks man, glad to know my life and those that were with me meant nothing after all the times I risked it all for someone else!" Vaughn was getting agitated.
"Vaughn." The voice of Jack Bristow broke through the tension in the room.
"Sorry, so as I was saying. I got angry"
"Got? It sounds like you are still" Weiss sounded offended and bit guilty to Malone ears. Leaving your friend for dead was never easy and it seemed as if Weiss was now realizing what that decision had meant for his best friend.
"Anyway, I started trying to figure out a way to escape and disappear. I didn't even care about bringing my father to justice anymore I just wanted out. I figured since noone cared about me why the hell should I care about seeing them again. One day my father said we could go into Marrakech. I figured that was my chance. We were in the city when I spotted someone. I was shocked, they hadn't forgotten me after all." "Jack" Weiss said, not really a question but a statement, he knew Jack Bristow was the only person in the Agency that would have the balls to go against orders for years at a time.
"The Agency had forbidden any agent to go looking for the lost team and I knew how important it was to give everyone back home some peace. So I went a couple times a year, just to see if I could pick up on any word. Vaughn had been gone for 3 years at this point but I started hearing from my informants that a new man had joined the "bosses" group. I waited in Marrakech for a few weeks when I saw Vaughn in the town market." Jack Bristow finally joined the conversation.
"I was so excited when I saw him and it took everything I had to ignore him. I snapped out of my funk, realizing that I could still make a difference, I felt finally that someone did care about me and had been trying to find me." He gave a small smile "you can never understand how it felt to be myself again." He stopped for a few moments and collected his thoughts. "Jack passed by me and dropped a pad of paper in my pocket with a piece of lead to write with and disappeared. On the pad was a code phrase. I started writing down things I heard around the compound. My father started giving me more and more freedom and finally I had hope again. The next time we went into town a man approached me with the code phrase and I made my first drop."
"Why didn't the CIA know about this?" Malone asked. He couldn't believe that the CIA would allow one of its own to stay in that situation.
"The Agency could not be told. I had to find out as much information as I could from Vaughn before going to them with what I had. They considered him a lost man; his star was already on the wall. To them he was dead and it had to stay like that." Jack answered.
"The drops went on until just recently. I found out that the men I came with were still alive and I knew they had to be saved, I let Jack know what I had discovered and we decided that once we were able to free the men the Agency could move in. I had gathered enough information on my father's organization to bring them down and Jack confirmed it." At this point Vaughn stopped and took a sip of his drink. "I started noticing someone in town, someone so inconspicuous that he was obvious and I knew that the CIA had finally caught up with what Jack and I had been doing for years. That man was you Malone."
Malone was stunned, he thought his nondescript appearance was an asset but apparently those in the know knew what to look for. It jarred him to the bone.
"I never allowed you to see me, I had no idea what the CIA was planning. When I made my final contact with Jack I let him let know that I had seen you here and also about the party that was planned. I knew Jack would leak that information to Weiss, as he had done with the disk you recently recovered, without anyone being the wiser. And well that brings us to know, and here I am."
"Well its good to have you back man. There's a lot to say." Weiss said with a big smile on his face.
Vaughn smiled sadly and looked at the door where Sydney had left 1/2 hour before.
"I know things have changed. I couldn't expect anything less. I've had a lot of time to think about everything. I don't have anything to apologize for and I hope she's not expecting that." He looked at Weiss for confirmation, at Weiss' shrug he continued on "I will try and talk to her, but you know what, I don't know if I have the energy its going to take to reason with her right now. Truthfully all I want to do is sleep, let tomorrow take care of itself." Vaughn was quiet for a moment; his shoulders dropped and seemed to have to make an effort to finish his thought "To be honest I don't even know if what I am looking for is forgiveness from her, I don't think I did anything that needs forgiving." At that Vaughn moved to another chair and put on some headphones and listened to raid of his father's organization. The conversation was obviously over from Vaughn's point of view. Malone watched Weiss for a moment and noticed that he seemed to be trying to figure out what to say, or if he should say anything at all. Malone knew that Sydney and Weiss were close and he was sure that his boss/mentor was having a difficult time deciding whose side to be on in this melodrama.
Malone turned to Jack Bristow and asked the one question that had not been answered, "Why did you keep looking for Agent Vaughn even when the Agency said to leave it be?"
Jack turned to Malone and thought about his answer for a minute, "Because Malone, I love my daughter and she loves Vaughn."
Authors Notes- I want to thank all of those that reviewed my story. You are all awesome and I really appreciate you taking the time to let me know that you liked my story. It means a lot to me. I have noticed a few things still wrong in previous chapters so those will be corrected soon, including the title of the last chapter. I must have been confused when I posted it.
Thanks again to those of you still reading this story I hope you like this next installment.
Chapter 5- A Time to Live
Michael Vaughn and Agent Malone entered the base ops room to applause and cheers. Vaughn took no notice of those around him and headed straight for Jack Bristow.
"Jack"
"Agent Vaughn. Glad to see you well." Jack Bristow had a large smile on his face. "I think there are a few people here you need to talk to."
Vaughn turned and happiness seemed to flush across his face when he saw Weiss standing in the room.
"Weiss" he said sounding a bit unsure of the reception he was about to receive. His consternation would not last long as Weiss enveloped him in a long and very tight bear hug.
"You, my friend, have so much explaining to do, it's going to take at least 3 beers to get through it all."
"Yeah, more like a whole six pack. Its good to see you, good to be back." Vaughn answered. Malone noticed that Sydney Bristow had stayed back in the corner, almost like she was trying to hide herself from the man who had come back from the dead. Malone was curious as to her reaction, seeing as how her voice over his comm link was full of joy and hope, and this woman hiding in the corner caught him by surprise.
Malone focus was directed back to the two reunited friends when he heard an overly loud laugh.
"Oh there is no way in hell you could drink me under the table, you have always been a lightweight." Weiss jokingly said to Vaughn. Malone noticed Weiss was not quiet making eye contact with Agent Vaughn, almost as if he was uncomfortable. It was understandable considering that Vaughn had been thought dead for the last 5 years
"Me, the lightweight, allow me to remind you of the time I had to carry you out of bar instead of allowing you to make the biggest the mistake of your life with a woman who was easily twice your size and definitely twice as ugly as you!!!" The two friends laughed together for a few seconds and the room again grew quiet. "How is she?" Vaughn asked Weiss in soft apprehensive voice. Weiss didn't answer just jerked his head to the left. Vaughn turned slowly and looked in the direction Weiss had indicated. Malone sat and stared and the scene unfolding before him. Vaughn just stood there as if in a trance and looked at the woman in the corner.
"Syd" his voice sounded strangled, he could barely get her name out. Malone watched as Sydney's face went through an array of emotions, joy, fear, apprehension and finally anger. She was pissed and it was easy to tell, even to Malone, who barely knew her. Sydney walked slowly up to Vaughn and stared into his eyes for what seemed like an hour but was probably only 2 minutes. At last she grabbed him to her and embraced him. He immediately hugged her back and everyone could see the tears in his eyes. Then suddenly she stepped back and slapped him, hard. He did nothing to stop her as she struck him again. Finally she turned and walked out the door. Vaughn did not make a move to go after her; he just turned back to Weiss. Malone saw Weiss stare at the door Sydney left through as if unsure what to do at this point. He assumed that Weiss' desire to talk to his long lost friend won out when the AD turned back to Vaughn and began speaking.
"So man, what's the deal, where the hell have you been?" Weiss asked, as if Vaughn getting slapped by another agent was a regular occurrence.
Vaughn launched into the story of his capture by his father. "He shot me but it must have missed all my vitals, I still don't know how I survived but I did. My father called in a doctor when he realized I wasn't going to die and they treated me. Once I was stronger they placed me in what can only be described as a cell. The agents that were with me with on the mission were in the other cells around me. We were able to talk to each other to keep sane." He continued on, " The food was awful but it got us through, we talked about home, wives, kids, girlfriends, anything and everything to keep the hope alive that one day we would get of there. Then one day, one of my father's goons came down and pulled me out of my cell. I had not seen my father since that first day but his men took me to a room and left me. There I found shampoo and basic toiletries. It was nicer in amenities but I had noone to talk to. They left me food through a hole in the door, like a mail slot." Vaughn hesitated for a moment "I started to go crazy; I had noone to talk to. I started talking to myself and then I started talking to imaginary people, to you to Syd. I knew they weren't real but it's all I had. I felt so alone, all the time; it was a form of sensory deprivation I guess. I started make tools to cut myself, just to feel something. The objects in my room stared talking back to me; I got quite close with a lamp. We're going to keep in touch" Vaughn said the last sentence jokingly, trying to ease the tension in the room. He ran his hands through his hair in what seemed to be an impatient but calming gesturing. Malone was sure that this must be difficult to talk about but Vaughn seemed to be handling it well. Occasionally he would glance nervously around the room but besides that he seemed at ease, which surprised Malone.
"You always were the weird one in the Company, but I am glad you made such good friends, does that lamp have a bed stand I could call, it's so lonely at the top." Weiss joked
"I would hate to see you after that, noone to listen to your horrible jokes, you'd be stark raving mad after a day." Vaughn joked, "Anyway, I don't know how long I was there by myself but one day my father came into the room, I was so happy to talk to someone other than myself, but he only stayed for a few minutes and when he left I craved more contact. I guess that was the point. I never even thought to ask why he was alive I just wanted to connect with someone, anyone. After that, he would come by and we would talk about, well nothing really, just talk. Then one day he invited me to dinner in the main dining room. I never even thought to look around I was just starved for human interaction." Vaughn seemed almost embarrassed. "I never realized how important human contact was, until it was gone. I found myself thinking all day about what I wanted to say, what could I say to get more company. My father slowly let me have more and more time out of the room. And I was so grateful that I did anything he asked of me. I had no idea how long I had been gone or what year it was, nothing was the same. It was then that I started getting angry, I mean where the hell was everyone. Did they not even think to try and recover my body? It pissed me off."
"Vaughn, we thought you were dead, the Agency didn't want to lose any more people"
"Thanks man, glad to know my life and those that were with me meant nothing after all the times I risked it all for someone else!" Vaughn was getting agitated.
"Vaughn." The voice of Jack Bristow broke through the tension in the room.
"Sorry, so as I was saying. I got angry"
"Got? It sounds like you are still" Weiss sounded offended and bit guilty to Malone ears. Leaving your friend for dead was never easy and it seemed as if Weiss was now realizing what that decision had meant for his best friend.
"Anyway, I started trying to figure out a way to escape and disappear. I didn't even care about bringing my father to justice anymore I just wanted out. I figured since noone cared about me why the hell should I care about seeing them again. One day my father said we could go into Marrakech. I figured that was my chance. We were in the city when I spotted someone. I was shocked, they hadn't forgotten me after all." "Jack" Weiss said, not really a question but a statement, he knew Jack Bristow was the only person in the Agency that would have the balls to go against orders for years at a time.
"The Agency had forbidden any agent to go looking for the lost team and I knew how important it was to give everyone back home some peace. So I went a couple times a year, just to see if I could pick up on any word. Vaughn had been gone for 3 years at this point but I started hearing from my informants that a new man had joined the "bosses" group. I waited in Marrakech for a few weeks when I saw Vaughn in the town market." Jack Bristow finally joined the conversation.
"I was so excited when I saw him and it took everything I had to ignore him. I snapped out of my funk, realizing that I could still make a difference, I felt finally that someone did care about me and had been trying to find me." He gave a small smile "you can never understand how it felt to be myself again." He stopped for a few moments and collected his thoughts. "Jack passed by me and dropped a pad of paper in my pocket with a piece of lead to write with and disappeared. On the pad was a code phrase. I started writing down things I heard around the compound. My father started giving me more and more freedom and finally I had hope again. The next time we went into town a man approached me with the code phrase and I made my first drop."
"Why didn't the CIA know about this?" Malone asked. He couldn't believe that the CIA would allow one of its own to stay in that situation.
"The Agency could not be told. I had to find out as much information as I could from Vaughn before going to them with what I had. They considered him a lost man; his star was already on the wall. To them he was dead and it had to stay like that." Jack answered.
"The drops went on until just recently. I found out that the men I came with were still alive and I knew they had to be saved, I let Jack know what I had discovered and we decided that once we were able to free the men the Agency could move in. I had gathered enough information on my father's organization to bring them down and Jack confirmed it." At this point Vaughn stopped and took a sip of his drink. "I started noticing someone in town, someone so inconspicuous that he was obvious and I knew that the CIA had finally caught up with what Jack and I had been doing for years. That man was you Malone."
Malone was stunned, he thought his nondescript appearance was an asset but apparently those in the know knew what to look for. It jarred him to the bone.
"I never allowed you to see me, I had no idea what the CIA was planning. When I made my final contact with Jack I let him let know that I had seen you here and also about the party that was planned. I knew Jack would leak that information to Weiss, as he had done with the disk you recently recovered, without anyone being the wiser. And well that brings us to know, and here I am."
"Well its good to have you back man. There's a lot to say." Weiss said with a big smile on his face.
Vaughn smiled sadly and looked at the door where Sydney had left 1/2 hour before.
"I know things have changed. I couldn't expect anything less. I've had a lot of time to think about everything. I don't have anything to apologize for and I hope she's not expecting that." He looked at Weiss for confirmation, at Weiss' shrug he continued on "I will try and talk to her, but you know what, I don't know if I have the energy its going to take to reason with her right now. Truthfully all I want to do is sleep, let tomorrow take care of itself." Vaughn was quiet for a moment; his shoulders dropped and seemed to have to make an effort to finish his thought "To be honest I don't even know if what I am looking for is forgiveness from her, I don't think I did anything that needs forgiving." At that Vaughn moved to another chair and put on some headphones and listened to raid of his father's organization. The conversation was obviously over from Vaughn's point of view. Malone watched Weiss for a moment and noticed that he seemed to be trying to figure out what to say, or if he should say anything at all. Malone knew that Sydney and Weiss were close and he was sure that his boss/mentor was having a difficult time deciding whose side to be on in this melodrama.
Malone turned to Jack Bristow and asked the one question that had not been answered, "Why did you keep looking for Agent Vaughn even when the Agency said to leave it be?"
Jack turned to Malone and thought about his answer for a minute, "Because Malone, I love my daughter and she loves Vaughn."