Story: A world of chances, left behind
Chapter: Two men and a baby.
Rating: PG 13 at the moment for minimal course language but the rating will probably change later when I get into it a bit more.
Disclaimer: I'm sick of doing this already. I was hoping to come up with something witty for every chapter but soon discovered that I don't have humor so I'll just say: "Refer to chapters 1 to 3."
A/N: Thanks heaps to my reviewers. AnnaSun, Leo's lil sister and Mrs. Harris seem to be the most devoted so thanks heaps to them.
If you are interested in other great post 'The Telling' fics, check out 'The other side of the Story' by Leo's l'il sista.
Well I still haven't seen 'The Telling' which is annoying. I'm trying to download it off the internet but I think that it's just going slow to spite me. I have this entire story planned out, almost to the last detail and the whole thing is practically written. I would still like some feed back. Thanks a lot again to my reviewers.
Two hours of 24 until Alias!!!! Yay!!!!
Summary: Dreams, Saturday morning spats, two men and a baby, back from the dead, out to dinner, mentally and physically disabled hospital.
~*
Sydney stirred in the darkness of her room.
Images flashed before her eyes as the room spun faster and faster. Sloane let out an evil laugh, Sark blew her a kiss, a baby screamed and her father was tied to a chair.
She sat up, eyes wide and breathing heavily. She glanced at her watch, it read nine thirteen. She scrambled out of bed cursing the heavy drapes that cut every inch of sunlight from the room.
She ran quickly downstairs to find Vaughn and Kate sitting at the breakfast table, chatting with William cooing on Kate's knee.
"Morning." Kate greeted the flustered Sydney. "Did you want some coffee?"
"What?" Sydney stared at them being so normal. She took a second to think tossing the dream aside she came to the sense to ask what day it was.
"It's Saturday," Vaughn replied, amused that she was panicking about being late for work, "here's the paper."
Sydney took the paper from him and sat down at the table. Damn, she felt like an idiot.
Kate put coffee in front of her and was thanked for it.
"Are you okay?" Sydney asked Vaughn when Kate returned to the kitchen to make some toast.
Vaughn nodded vaguely, "I don't really think this is the time or the place to discuss it but I will later."
Sydney recognized that as her cue to shut up about her father but the dream edged conversation.
"Vaughn?" Sydney began sipping her coffee.
"You never call me Michael." He replied looking at her and smiling.
Both of them seemed to think the same thing at that time.
"I do sometimes." They both said in unison and started laughing.
Kate spun around from her post at the toaster to observe the scene, she couldn't help but smile, watching two grown people laughing their heads off.
"I don't believe that you remember that." Vaughn laughed.
"Me. I can't believe that you remember that." Sydney retorted. "To me that only happened a few weeks ago."
"Yeah," Vaughn said suddenly calm. That was the truth, she had just skipped two year of her life and she had no filling in them, so there for they mustn't have existed to her. "Well I remember it because it was the day that you said that you were leaving the CIA and I thought that I'd lose you forever."
"You ended up losing me anyway." Sydney said sadly.
For a few moments there was complete silence in the Vaughn household kitchen - then Kate cleared her throat.
"Sydney what would you like on your toast?" She asked, plopping the two pieces on to a plate angrily before trotting over to table and slamming the plate down in front of Sydney.
"Uh - I'll get it." Sydney said climbing to her feet and making her way to the fridge.
Vaughn stared up a Kate from where he was sitting. His expression said 'what?' She looked back at him with and expression that screamed every obscenity in the English language and a few others.
"I'm going for a walk." She said still glaring before plucking William off the floor rug she'd laid him on when she went to make Sydney's toast and storming out.
Vaughn didn't try and stop her. She had every right to be angry.
"I'm sorry." Sydney said lamely. She stood in front of the fridge door with a tub of butter in one hand and a jar of strawberry jam in the other. Her hair was messy and sat everywhere possible on her head, her fluffy duck pajamas were slightly askew and she was wearing one discolored sock.
Vaughn smiled. The sight of Sydney would never cease to amaze him no matter where he was. He felt a strange longing for her but quickly remembered his wife and adverted his eyes to a crumb on the table. "No it's okay, I shouldn't have said anything. What was it that you wanted to ask?"
"Oh, I don't know if you can help me because you've been away from the CIA as long as I have but, do you know what happened to Sark? Is he still in custody?" Sydney said taking her seat again and started spreading her toast.
"No idea." Vaughn looked puzzled. "The thought never really crossed my mind."
"Well I think that I might ask Kendall when I get to work on Monday morning." Sydney said putting the piece of toast in her mouth. "So do you wanna talk about last night?"
"It's just weird I guess." Vaughn sighed. "I mean, he's alive and he's working for your mother. Isn't that weird?" He grappled for support.
"That is weird." Sydney agreed biting into her toast. "How are you about it?"
Vaughn hesitantly looked at her. "I don't know really. Confused I guess. I hardly slept." He scrubbed his hands over his tired eyes. "What was it like for you?"
"Painful." She said in a word and left it at that.
Silence hung over the kitchen for several minutes, daring one of them to speak.
I was Vaughn that broke it. "So what are you going to do today?" He asked.
"Apartment hunting." She replied grinning. "Feel like joining me?"
"Oh why not." Vaughn said making Sydney smile. He smiled back.
~*
"Mr. Sloane." Sark greeted as he walked in to the small apartment.
It was amazingly tiny and smelt badly of rotten fish. That was explained as the fish market that stood in the street running parallel to the apartment.
"What is it Sark? And how many times have I told you to call me Arvin?" Sloane replied, staring out of the window at the busy streets below.
"Fine Arvin. Our mole contacted me last night, every thing is in order." Sark informed. "We will be free to leave in the morning."
"Good, I'm starting to get sick of this fish." Sloane replied turning away from the window.
On the bed in the center of the room, resting on the world's ugliest bedspread was a tiny sprawled mass of arms and legs.
For such a small thing it could produce a lot of noise.
Sloane moved quickly across the small space and pulled the child into his arms. He cooed over it and rocked it.
Sark watched in keen interest as Sloane started to hum a familiar tune. Sark remembered it from his childhood. When he had a mother and father. He could not see their faces anymore. He hadn't been able to recall their faces for a long time.
"Hush beautiful." Sloane whispered to the child. "Hush my beautiful Emily. She's hungry Sark."
"What do you want me to do about it?" Sark looked shocked that Sloane would actually have a space somewhere in that rough exterior for a heart. He, Sark, had disposed of his heart long ago.
"Well then hold her while I go and get a bottle for her." Sloane ignored Sark's stuttering protests as he dumped the child in his arms and headed to the single benched area that had enough room for a small sink and a kettle. The fridge stuck out of the end like it didn't belong, Sloane opened it and produced a pre-made bottle and proceeded to heat it.
When Sloane turned around, Sark was holding the baby at arm length. He and the child were surveying each other with keen interest. Sloane raised his eyebrows. "Sark what one earth are you doing?"
"I have absolutely no idea." He said with out breaking eye contact with her.
"She will get cold if you continue to hold her like that." Sloane informed him before turning back to the heating bottle.
Sark swayed a bit, he was considering putting it on the bed and jumping out the window. "I don't know the first thing about babies." He said still wavering.
"What do you want me to do about it?" Sloane mimicked.
"Help!" Sark suggested in a worried voice as the child began to scream.
Loud ear piercing screams that were met with Sark's fretting and yelling over her to Sloane for help.
Sloane snatched her off Sark and went back to the heating bottle.
"What is this?" Asked a familiar voice. "Two men and a baby?"
"Thank god." Sark said hoping that this entrance would make for his escape.
"Good morning Allison." Sloane greeted without looking up at her.
"Wass up?" Allison asked putting one hip on the tiny little kitchen bench and watching Sloane go about his fathering qualities.
"She doesn't like her daddy." Sloane stated.
Allison laughed.
Sark exploded. "Don't you ever call me that again." He threatened and walked out.
"He seems to be in a bad mood this morning." Allison observed. "I think that I'm going to try and cheer him up."
"You do that," Sloane replied. Before she shut the door he added. "We'll be leaving at oh seven hundred."
"Sure thing." She was gone and Sloane was alone with the child just the way that he liked it.
~*
"Auugghh." Sydney let out a sigh of pure frustration. "I'm never going to find an apartment. I told you didn't I. You own me ten bucks."
Vaughn sighed in defeat and fished in his pockets for ten dollars.
He handed it to her, she snatched it from him and stowed it away in her own pocket.
He was sure that they'd been to every real estate agent in LA and looked at more then a hundred apartments that we're either too big or too small or too expensive. He wanted to go to the gym where he could release some tension.
They walked into the Vaughn household. Once inside, Sydney collapsed on the couch while Vaughn headed towards the aromas of the kitchen.
"Hello beautiful." Vaughn greeted wrapping his arms around Kate and kissing her tenderly on the neck. "What's cooking?"
"Blueberry pie for the church congregation tomorrow morning." She replied putting her head to one side as a silent request for him not to stop. "I was thinking that we could go out to dinner tonight."
"Sure, where would you like to go?" Vaughn asked letting his hands roam all over her body.
"How about to that restaurant on Beverly that you're so obsessed with?" She suggested.
"Sounds good." He mutted to her neck.
She squirmed out of his grasp and plucked William out of his bassinet in on the kitchen table and walked quickly from the kitchen.
Sydney was lying on the couch, staring at the ceiling when Kate plodded into the lounge. Sydney looked at her lazily.
"Sydney I was wondering if you would do me a favor." Kate asked jiggling William up and down in her arms.
Sydney felt obligated to do the favor. She had put a strain on everybody as she had walked back into the world of the living. "Sure anything."
"Baby sit for us tonight. My husband is taking me out for dinner." Kate said thrusting William into Sydney's arms.
She sat up abruptly trying to balance the now screaming, wriggling mass. "What?" She wasn't quiet expecting that to be the favor. "Uh, do you really think that is wise."
Kate started back towards the kitchen ignoring Sydney's protests. "Thanks." She shot back.
~*
Sydney felt sixteen again as Vaughn and Kate backed down their driveway. William was grasped firmly in her arms staring up at her with curiosity.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Sydney asked the baby who just looked back at her through his big brown eyes and stuck his tongue out. "Yeah right." She laughed and closed the door. "So what do you wanna do?"
William just kept his tongue out and stared at her.
"We're you born with out a blinking mechanism?" She asked him. "I suppose that you don't want to go clubbing and get really drunk. How about a cab to the mentally and physically disabled hospital?"
~*
"Can you please tell me where I can find Will Tippin?" She asked the lady at the front desk when she arrived. William firmly placed in a pram.
"He's in room forty one. But he should be in the main game room at this time. He really likes a good game of poker." The nurse that was standing about two meters away answered.
The grumpy looking front desk lady shrugged her shoulders and went back to her magazine.
"Come with me." The smiling nurse gestured. "What a beautiful baby, is he yours?"
"No, he's not. I'm babysitting for a friend of mine." Sydney said pushing the pram along side of the nurse who smiled at everybody she passed. "So do you know all of your patients by name and room number or did Will hit on you?"
The nurse just laughed. "Will's a sweet guy but no I know just about everybody here. They make me smile. Some of them are so funny, other are bitter but most are just simple people who like a good conversation. Will loves to tell stories."
"Oh really." Sydney wondered. "What sort of stories?"
"Oh," The nurse pondered for a minute, "wonderful stories of adventures to other countries and princesses kidnapped by wicked lords. There's one that he tells about a princess the tried to live in the world as a normal person, to hide from the wicked lord that was trying to kill her. She is fighting against the wicked lord with the help of her friends but some of her friend's work for the wicked lord. One day she has a fight with one of her friends and she disappears. He thinks that the wicked lord kidnapped her and took her back to his castle but the other friends think that she is dead. Great story, huh?"
Sydney was mesmerized by the story. She knew very well that the missing princess was herself. "Did Will ever give this princess a name?"
"Yes, he called her Sydney." The nurse informed as they rounded the corner and stopped in the doorway. "Here we are and here's a visitors pass for you. I haven't seen you around here before. Are you and Will related? He talks about his sister Amy a lot."
"No, I haven't been here before. I just got back into town this week. I didn't know that Will was here until a few days ago. His sister Amy was killed in a car crash weeks ago - I mean years ago." Sydney spoke softly. "Thank you."
"No problem." The nurse replied. "He should be over there at the poker tables." She point to their right near a big glass window that over looked the large grounds that the hospital was built on. "I didn't get your name." The nurse called after her.
"My name Sydney." She said sparing the nurse a glance as the shock registered on her merry little face.
Sydney broke into the biggest smile when she spotted Will's back hunched over a hand of poker.
One of his opponents looked up at her and said. "I must have died, for there is an angel waiting to take me to heaven."
Will first looked at his opponent the turned and saw Sydney. At first he couldn't believe his eyes. "Sydney?" He asked in disbelief.
Sydney sobbed as tears quickly formed in her eyes and started to roll down her cheeks. "Oh god Will." Abandoning the pram and William, she dropped to her knees beside his chair and hugged him tightly.
Will was shocked beyond belief he raised his hand to her head and patted her gently. His mouth hung open as if trying to form a word.
She looked up at him trying to smile through her sobbing, tear streaked face. She touched his face gently. "God I'm so sorry. So sorry." She repeated as she tried to get her breath back.
~*
They sat in the cool late evening air of a balcony. William slept soundlessly in his pram while Sydney and Will sat across from each other at a small table.
"Sydney, where on earth were you?" Will asked watching her.
"I have no idea." She replied. "I have suffered some kind of memory loss and the past two years are a loss to me. I can't remember a thing from them. Are you okay? Vaughn said that you were suffering brain damage."
"Vaughn? You've seen him?" Will asked.
"Yes, I live with him at the moment" Sydney informed him.
Will gasped, "Well I never - He always visits me. I think he does it because he doesn't want me to be lonely waiting for you to come back. I always knew that you'd come back."
"Yeah, Vaughn told me that he visits you." Sydney studied her nails and decided that they could do with a bit of work. "So tell me how you are."
"Yeah." Was all he said for several moments, thinking about how he would word everything. "I live here now. Francie was the double. I nearly died of shock when I found out, she didn't have to try and kill me."
More tears formed in Sydney's eyes. "I know, I killed her. So Vaughn said that you were suffering from brain damage. How bad is it?"
Will breathed in heavily. "Well it's not that bad. You know Vaughn just didn't want to get your hopes up. I am in this chair for life." He said rather plainly indicating his wheelchair. "Sometimes I forget where I am and what I'm doing. But that doesn't really last that long and I'm on medication that I have to take for the rest of my life to balance the chemicals in my brain that got mixed up in the coma. Don't ask me how it works it just does."
Sydney sobbed again. She felt so sorry for her friend. "Will, when I get a place of my own will you come and live with me? It'll be like old times when we used to hang around and play poker and eat ice cream and we can have Michael and Kate over for dinner. What do you think?"
Will considered it and then nodded. "Yes, I think that I would like to come and live with you Sydney."
Sydney smiled and cried more. "We'll have so much fun together."
~*
A/N: Yeah so I evil. Big dealio. No really, that's a nice gesture by Sydney to Will and considering that they're like really good friends it would be really selfish on Sydney's part if she didn't offer to take care of her friend. Oh and I killed Amy too. Sorry bout that but at the time it seemed an interesting thing to do. It's one of those 'you didn't see it during the show' things. And as for Allison, yeah she's alive. You might say: "hang on a second - wasn't she confirmed dead in chapter 1?" and the answer is no. She was presumed dead by a disillusioned Vaughn who was recounting to Sydney his own movements on the night of her disappearance. The story of Allison's survival will be written into further chapters when I make it up.
Chapter: Two men and a baby.
Rating: PG 13 at the moment for minimal course language but the rating will probably change later when I get into it a bit more.
Disclaimer: I'm sick of doing this already. I was hoping to come up with something witty for every chapter but soon discovered that I don't have humor so I'll just say: "Refer to chapters 1 to 3."
A/N: Thanks heaps to my reviewers. AnnaSun, Leo's lil sister and Mrs. Harris seem to be the most devoted so thanks heaps to them.
If you are interested in other great post 'The Telling' fics, check out 'The other side of the Story' by Leo's l'il sista.
Well I still haven't seen 'The Telling' which is annoying. I'm trying to download it off the internet but I think that it's just going slow to spite me. I have this entire story planned out, almost to the last detail and the whole thing is practically written. I would still like some feed back. Thanks a lot again to my reviewers.
Two hours of 24 until Alias!!!! Yay!!!!
Summary: Dreams, Saturday morning spats, two men and a baby, back from the dead, out to dinner, mentally and physically disabled hospital.
~*
Sydney stirred in the darkness of her room.
Images flashed before her eyes as the room spun faster and faster. Sloane let out an evil laugh, Sark blew her a kiss, a baby screamed and her father was tied to a chair.
She sat up, eyes wide and breathing heavily. She glanced at her watch, it read nine thirteen. She scrambled out of bed cursing the heavy drapes that cut every inch of sunlight from the room.
She ran quickly downstairs to find Vaughn and Kate sitting at the breakfast table, chatting with William cooing on Kate's knee.
"Morning." Kate greeted the flustered Sydney. "Did you want some coffee?"
"What?" Sydney stared at them being so normal. She took a second to think tossing the dream aside she came to the sense to ask what day it was.
"It's Saturday," Vaughn replied, amused that she was panicking about being late for work, "here's the paper."
Sydney took the paper from him and sat down at the table. Damn, she felt like an idiot.
Kate put coffee in front of her and was thanked for it.
"Are you okay?" Sydney asked Vaughn when Kate returned to the kitchen to make some toast.
Vaughn nodded vaguely, "I don't really think this is the time or the place to discuss it but I will later."
Sydney recognized that as her cue to shut up about her father but the dream edged conversation.
"Vaughn?" Sydney began sipping her coffee.
"You never call me Michael." He replied looking at her and smiling.
Both of them seemed to think the same thing at that time.
"I do sometimes." They both said in unison and started laughing.
Kate spun around from her post at the toaster to observe the scene, she couldn't help but smile, watching two grown people laughing their heads off.
"I don't believe that you remember that." Vaughn laughed.
"Me. I can't believe that you remember that." Sydney retorted. "To me that only happened a few weeks ago."
"Yeah," Vaughn said suddenly calm. That was the truth, she had just skipped two year of her life and she had no filling in them, so there for they mustn't have existed to her. "Well I remember it because it was the day that you said that you were leaving the CIA and I thought that I'd lose you forever."
"You ended up losing me anyway." Sydney said sadly.
For a few moments there was complete silence in the Vaughn household kitchen - then Kate cleared her throat.
"Sydney what would you like on your toast?" She asked, plopping the two pieces on to a plate angrily before trotting over to table and slamming the plate down in front of Sydney.
"Uh - I'll get it." Sydney said climbing to her feet and making her way to the fridge.
Vaughn stared up a Kate from where he was sitting. His expression said 'what?' She looked back at him with and expression that screamed every obscenity in the English language and a few others.
"I'm going for a walk." She said still glaring before plucking William off the floor rug she'd laid him on when she went to make Sydney's toast and storming out.
Vaughn didn't try and stop her. She had every right to be angry.
"I'm sorry." Sydney said lamely. She stood in front of the fridge door with a tub of butter in one hand and a jar of strawberry jam in the other. Her hair was messy and sat everywhere possible on her head, her fluffy duck pajamas were slightly askew and she was wearing one discolored sock.
Vaughn smiled. The sight of Sydney would never cease to amaze him no matter where he was. He felt a strange longing for her but quickly remembered his wife and adverted his eyes to a crumb on the table. "No it's okay, I shouldn't have said anything. What was it that you wanted to ask?"
"Oh, I don't know if you can help me because you've been away from the CIA as long as I have but, do you know what happened to Sark? Is he still in custody?" Sydney said taking her seat again and started spreading her toast.
"No idea." Vaughn looked puzzled. "The thought never really crossed my mind."
"Well I think that I might ask Kendall when I get to work on Monday morning." Sydney said putting the piece of toast in her mouth. "So do you wanna talk about last night?"
"It's just weird I guess." Vaughn sighed. "I mean, he's alive and he's working for your mother. Isn't that weird?" He grappled for support.
"That is weird." Sydney agreed biting into her toast. "How are you about it?"
Vaughn hesitantly looked at her. "I don't know really. Confused I guess. I hardly slept." He scrubbed his hands over his tired eyes. "What was it like for you?"
"Painful." She said in a word and left it at that.
Silence hung over the kitchen for several minutes, daring one of them to speak.
I was Vaughn that broke it. "So what are you going to do today?" He asked.
"Apartment hunting." She replied grinning. "Feel like joining me?"
"Oh why not." Vaughn said making Sydney smile. He smiled back.
~*
"Mr. Sloane." Sark greeted as he walked in to the small apartment.
It was amazingly tiny and smelt badly of rotten fish. That was explained as the fish market that stood in the street running parallel to the apartment.
"What is it Sark? And how many times have I told you to call me Arvin?" Sloane replied, staring out of the window at the busy streets below.
"Fine Arvin. Our mole contacted me last night, every thing is in order." Sark informed. "We will be free to leave in the morning."
"Good, I'm starting to get sick of this fish." Sloane replied turning away from the window.
On the bed in the center of the room, resting on the world's ugliest bedspread was a tiny sprawled mass of arms and legs.
For such a small thing it could produce a lot of noise.
Sloane moved quickly across the small space and pulled the child into his arms. He cooed over it and rocked it.
Sark watched in keen interest as Sloane started to hum a familiar tune. Sark remembered it from his childhood. When he had a mother and father. He could not see their faces anymore. He hadn't been able to recall their faces for a long time.
"Hush beautiful." Sloane whispered to the child. "Hush my beautiful Emily. She's hungry Sark."
"What do you want me to do about it?" Sark looked shocked that Sloane would actually have a space somewhere in that rough exterior for a heart. He, Sark, had disposed of his heart long ago.
"Well then hold her while I go and get a bottle for her." Sloane ignored Sark's stuttering protests as he dumped the child in his arms and headed to the single benched area that had enough room for a small sink and a kettle. The fridge stuck out of the end like it didn't belong, Sloane opened it and produced a pre-made bottle and proceeded to heat it.
When Sloane turned around, Sark was holding the baby at arm length. He and the child were surveying each other with keen interest. Sloane raised his eyebrows. "Sark what one earth are you doing?"
"I have absolutely no idea." He said with out breaking eye contact with her.
"She will get cold if you continue to hold her like that." Sloane informed him before turning back to the heating bottle.
Sark swayed a bit, he was considering putting it on the bed and jumping out the window. "I don't know the first thing about babies." He said still wavering.
"What do you want me to do about it?" Sloane mimicked.
"Help!" Sark suggested in a worried voice as the child began to scream.
Loud ear piercing screams that were met with Sark's fretting and yelling over her to Sloane for help.
Sloane snatched her off Sark and went back to the heating bottle.
"What is this?" Asked a familiar voice. "Two men and a baby?"
"Thank god." Sark said hoping that this entrance would make for his escape.
"Good morning Allison." Sloane greeted without looking up at her.
"Wass up?" Allison asked putting one hip on the tiny little kitchen bench and watching Sloane go about his fathering qualities.
"She doesn't like her daddy." Sloane stated.
Allison laughed.
Sark exploded. "Don't you ever call me that again." He threatened and walked out.
"He seems to be in a bad mood this morning." Allison observed. "I think that I'm going to try and cheer him up."
"You do that," Sloane replied. Before she shut the door he added. "We'll be leaving at oh seven hundred."
"Sure thing." She was gone and Sloane was alone with the child just the way that he liked it.
~*
"Auugghh." Sydney let out a sigh of pure frustration. "I'm never going to find an apartment. I told you didn't I. You own me ten bucks."
Vaughn sighed in defeat and fished in his pockets for ten dollars.
He handed it to her, she snatched it from him and stowed it away in her own pocket.
He was sure that they'd been to every real estate agent in LA and looked at more then a hundred apartments that we're either too big or too small or too expensive. He wanted to go to the gym where he could release some tension.
They walked into the Vaughn household. Once inside, Sydney collapsed on the couch while Vaughn headed towards the aromas of the kitchen.
"Hello beautiful." Vaughn greeted wrapping his arms around Kate and kissing her tenderly on the neck. "What's cooking?"
"Blueberry pie for the church congregation tomorrow morning." She replied putting her head to one side as a silent request for him not to stop. "I was thinking that we could go out to dinner tonight."
"Sure, where would you like to go?" Vaughn asked letting his hands roam all over her body.
"How about to that restaurant on Beverly that you're so obsessed with?" She suggested.
"Sounds good." He mutted to her neck.
She squirmed out of his grasp and plucked William out of his bassinet in on the kitchen table and walked quickly from the kitchen.
Sydney was lying on the couch, staring at the ceiling when Kate plodded into the lounge. Sydney looked at her lazily.
"Sydney I was wondering if you would do me a favor." Kate asked jiggling William up and down in her arms.
Sydney felt obligated to do the favor. She had put a strain on everybody as she had walked back into the world of the living. "Sure anything."
"Baby sit for us tonight. My husband is taking me out for dinner." Kate said thrusting William into Sydney's arms.
She sat up abruptly trying to balance the now screaming, wriggling mass. "What?" She wasn't quiet expecting that to be the favor. "Uh, do you really think that is wise."
Kate started back towards the kitchen ignoring Sydney's protests. "Thanks." She shot back.
~*
Sydney felt sixteen again as Vaughn and Kate backed down their driveway. William was grasped firmly in her arms staring up at her with curiosity.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Sydney asked the baby who just looked back at her through his big brown eyes and stuck his tongue out. "Yeah right." She laughed and closed the door. "So what do you wanna do?"
William just kept his tongue out and stared at her.
"We're you born with out a blinking mechanism?" She asked him. "I suppose that you don't want to go clubbing and get really drunk. How about a cab to the mentally and physically disabled hospital?"
~*
"Can you please tell me where I can find Will Tippin?" She asked the lady at the front desk when she arrived. William firmly placed in a pram.
"He's in room forty one. But he should be in the main game room at this time. He really likes a good game of poker." The nurse that was standing about two meters away answered.
The grumpy looking front desk lady shrugged her shoulders and went back to her magazine.
"Come with me." The smiling nurse gestured. "What a beautiful baby, is he yours?"
"No, he's not. I'm babysitting for a friend of mine." Sydney said pushing the pram along side of the nurse who smiled at everybody she passed. "So do you know all of your patients by name and room number or did Will hit on you?"
The nurse just laughed. "Will's a sweet guy but no I know just about everybody here. They make me smile. Some of them are so funny, other are bitter but most are just simple people who like a good conversation. Will loves to tell stories."
"Oh really." Sydney wondered. "What sort of stories?"
"Oh," The nurse pondered for a minute, "wonderful stories of adventures to other countries and princesses kidnapped by wicked lords. There's one that he tells about a princess the tried to live in the world as a normal person, to hide from the wicked lord that was trying to kill her. She is fighting against the wicked lord with the help of her friends but some of her friend's work for the wicked lord. One day she has a fight with one of her friends and she disappears. He thinks that the wicked lord kidnapped her and took her back to his castle but the other friends think that she is dead. Great story, huh?"
Sydney was mesmerized by the story. She knew very well that the missing princess was herself. "Did Will ever give this princess a name?"
"Yes, he called her Sydney." The nurse informed as they rounded the corner and stopped in the doorway. "Here we are and here's a visitors pass for you. I haven't seen you around here before. Are you and Will related? He talks about his sister Amy a lot."
"No, I haven't been here before. I just got back into town this week. I didn't know that Will was here until a few days ago. His sister Amy was killed in a car crash weeks ago - I mean years ago." Sydney spoke softly. "Thank you."
"No problem." The nurse replied. "He should be over there at the poker tables." She point to their right near a big glass window that over looked the large grounds that the hospital was built on. "I didn't get your name." The nurse called after her.
"My name Sydney." She said sparing the nurse a glance as the shock registered on her merry little face.
Sydney broke into the biggest smile when she spotted Will's back hunched over a hand of poker.
One of his opponents looked up at her and said. "I must have died, for there is an angel waiting to take me to heaven."
Will first looked at his opponent the turned and saw Sydney. At first he couldn't believe his eyes. "Sydney?" He asked in disbelief.
Sydney sobbed as tears quickly formed in her eyes and started to roll down her cheeks. "Oh god Will." Abandoning the pram and William, she dropped to her knees beside his chair and hugged him tightly.
Will was shocked beyond belief he raised his hand to her head and patted her gently. His mouth hung open as if trying to form a word.
She looked up at him trying to smile through her sobbing, tear streaked face. She touched his face gently. "God I'm so sorry. So sorry." She repeated as she tried to get her breath back.
~*
They sat in the cool late evening air of a balcony. William slept soundlessly in his pram while Sydney and Will sat across from each other at a small table.
"Sydney, where on earth were you?" Will asked watching her.
"I have no idea." She replied. "I have suffered some kind of memory loss and the past two years are a loss to me. I can't remember a thing from them. Are you okay? Vaughn said that you were suffering brain damage."
"Vaughn? You've seen him?" Will asked.
"Yes, I live with him at the moment" Sydney informed him.
Will gasped, "Well I never - He always visits me. I think he does it because he doesn't want me to be lonely waiting for you to come back. I always knew that you'd come back."
"Yeah, Vaughn told me that he visits you." Sydney studied her nails and decided that they could do with a bit of work. "So tell me how you are."
"Yeah." Was all he said for several moments, thinking about how he would word everything. "I live here now. Francie was the double. I nearly died of shock when I found out, she didn't have to try and kill me."
More tears formed in Sydney's eyes. "I know, I killed her. So Vaughn said that you were suffering from brain damage. How bad is it?"
Will breathed in heavily. "Well it's not that bad. You know Vaughn just didn't want to get your hopes up. I am in this chair for life." He said rather plainly indicating his wheelchair. "Sometimes I forget where I am and what I'm doing. But that doesn't really last that long and I'm on medication that I have to take for the rest of my life to balance the chemicals in my brain that got mixed up in the coma. Don't ask me how it works it just does."
Sydney sobbed again. She felt so sorry for her friend. "Will, when I get a place of my own will you come and live with me? It'll be like old times when we used to hang around and play poker and eat ice cream and we can have Michael and Kate over for dinner. What do you think?"
Will considered it and then nodded. "Yes, I think that I would like to come and live with you Sydney."
Sydney smiled and cried more. "We'll have so much fun together."
~*
A/N: Yeah so I evil. Big dealio. No really, that's a nice gesture by Sydney to Will and considering that they're like really good friends it would be really selfish on Sydney's part if she didn't offer to take care of her friend. Oh and I killed Amy too. Sorry bout that but at the time it seemed an interesting thing to do. It's one of those 'you didn't see it during the show' things. And as for Allison, yeah she's alive. You might say: "hang on a second - wasn't she confirmed dead in chapter 1?" and the answer is no. She was presumed dead by a disillusioned Vaughn who was recounting to Sydney his own movements on the night of her disappearance. The story of Allison's survival will be written into further chapters when I make it up.
