Chapter 1: Unchained Melody
Sydney opened her eyes and stifled a yawn. Her eyes widened a little as the events of the night before suddenly flashed in front of her. She looked beside her, hoping to see a warm body next to her, wishing that he could have stayed. But there was only empty space.
Well, empty space and a note with a rose. Sydney grinned.
Vaughn was so sweet. She gingerly opened the note.
"Sydney, You are the most amazing person I could ever hope to meet. I just wanted
you to know for the past few months, you have been the reason I wake up in the
morning and the last person on my mind when I go to sleep; your smile has
become the light of my life and I cannot wait until I see you again. –V."
She sighed and fell back onto her pillow. Oh. My. God. I can't believe we did it. I can't believe we breached all protocol. We could be fired for this. What kind of service is this to our country? But despite her rational thoughts, she was already reliving last night.
~Flashback~
"Your next counter mission will be to replace the painting with this one. It contains a tiny surveillance camera in the folds of this leaf ; we want to see what SD-6 is going to do with it because, frankly, we're not sure."
Sydney nodded, completely professional in all things outside of her mind and brain. God, he's so sexy when he talks like that. Look at him, being all serious, going over the counter mission with a fine-toothed comb just to keep me safe. I sound exactly like a schoolgirl with a crush on her teacher but LORD! He's gorgeous.
She noticed Vaughn looking around distractedly and was about to comment when
she heard him speak.
"Shit, I left the pin back in my room. It'll take about 40 minutes. Do you want to wait or should I give it to you tomorrow?" Vaughn's eyes took on a worried expression. Sydney loved him for it.
"Umm, pin?" God, she knew she would be caught one of these days.
"C'mon Sydney, don't play dumb. You know, the pin that you attach to the cameras so they will just keep looping?"
"Right. That pin. Got it. Well, Vaughn, my flight is at 5 in the morning and I'm telling you now that if you wake me up before then, though it will be a sweet gesture of how early you are willing to get up in the morning for me, I will kill you."
He chuckled, his eyes twinkling seductively. "All right Sydney. You win." He paused.
She always wins doesn't she? Yeah, of course she does. I'm such a sucker. "So, you wanna wait here while I go or do you want to go home and I'll just find some way to give it to you?"
"Don't be silly Vaughn. You know, so far all of these ways are just making it a lot harder on yourself. I don't need you to do all this. I'll just go with you." She smiled, hoping he would forget the rulebook just this once.
"You know Sydney, I can't just forget the rulebook!" Why is she smiling like that? She's trying to stop herself from laughing isn't she? What did I do?
Classic Vaughn. She grinned. "I know but, well, let's just take a look-see at our situation shall we? It's midnight, we work together, if we do it any other way it will be extremely inconvenient for at least one of us, we can easily explain the situation to Devlin. Besides, even if he does get pissed, it's not like he can fire us or anything. And if any civilians see us, why we're just an extremely attractive couple going to one of our houses for a little action," She winked at him and his discomfort.
"Look-see? I can't believe you actually said look-see." Vaughn desperately tried to change the topic.
"Don't change the subject, Vaughn. It's not like we're actually going to do something awful. I mean, we're just getting the pin in the most convenient way possible. Don't you trust me to keep my hands to myself?" Sydney grinned. What is this doing to him? Is it having any effect? Please have effect, please, please, please????!!!
God, does she know what kind of effect she's having on me? This woman is crazy and beautiful and I can't say no but I have to. C'mon Vaughny. Whoa, not Vaughny. Never Vaughny. C'mon Vaughn. Yeah, that sounds much more masculine. C'mon Vaughn, you're strong, you're CIA, you're buff. Say NO! "Well, I guess it will be all right. If you promise to behave yourself." He gave wink of his own, proud of himself for throwing Sydney, at least a little, off balance.
*Whoa, Vaughn knows how to flirt! * Sydney nearly giggled as she picked up her bag. "All right Watson, let us go!"
Vaughn looked at her uncomprehendingly for a second before it clicked. "All right, Sherlock! Wait, why are YOU Sherlock?"
"Because I say so and if you don't agree, well, I'm pretty sure I could kill you using just my thumb!"
Vaughn laughed then. A real, throaty laugh that reverberated in his throat and sent shivers up Sydney's spine.
They got into his car, Sydney sinking into his plush seats. The very air in here smelled like him and she couldn't stop herself from saying so. "You know, this whole car smells like you," She said.
"I have no idea from your tone whether or not that is a good or bad thing," Vaughn looked at her and imperceptibly sniffed the air. Well, almost imperceptibly. Sydney noticed but kept her thoughts, and her giggles, to herself.
"It's a good thing, Vaughn. You smell nice." She smiled.
"So do you Sydney. You always smell nice."
Sydney almost laughed at the absurdity. And then she did. Laugh I mean. "That's a pretty high compliment from the man who has seen and smelled me right after I've come out of the sewers."
Vaughn laughed again but couldn't stop himself from replying, "Well Syd, to tell the truth, you still smell good even then. I mean, sure you have a whole bunch of disgusting stuff all over you but, underneath it all, you still smell sweet. I don't even know what it is, but I'd recognize it anywhere-" He stopped, suddenly terrified of the words coming out of his mouth. He wanted to say something movie-esque like "Well, c'mon, at least say something," but he didn't think that phrase would be completely appropriate.
Sydney's heart caught in her throat. He had basically stated his feelings for her. She wanted to jump for joy, scream, laugh, kiss him until his face came off, well, not OFF, that would be a shame. He had such a beautiful sexy face, Okay, she wanted to kiss him until HER face fell off. But she didn't do anything. She just sat there in the silence, a picture of perfect composure on the outside but wriggling with pleasure inside.
Shit Vaughn, you stupid dumbass. You have no idea what you have just gotten yourself into. She knows and she's just too polite to say anything right now. You're dead. You might as well kill yourself right now. She's gonna request another handler and then you'll have to go back to your desk job and dream of these memories. And you know for sure that this one will be playing over and over, reminding you of the stupidest thing you have ever done in your entire life.
The silence was way too loud. They couldn't speak, they could hardly breathe, and both were completely aware of the heat, the smell, and the tension between them. Sydney wanted to touch him but instead turned on the radio. "Is it all right?"
"Su- Sure" Vaughn replied clearing his throat.
And through the silence came the strains of "Unchained Melody". Sydney had loved this song since before she could remember and began humming along. Vaughn looked at her; she was such an angel, such a beautiful angel. Look at her, singing this song and just hearing her try so hard makes her voice sound better. Ha, he nearly laughed at himself. Okay, so here was something she wasn't perfect at but she was still putting her all into it and that's what he lov- admired about her. "You know, you try so hard and your efforts make you voice sound much better than it is," He said with a wink.
Sydney was unsure at first whether or not he was making a joke or attempting to erase his words from before. She looked at him and then knew. "Well, if you are so good Mr. Hotshot, why don't you sing along?" To her surprise he did. His voice was soft, sexy, breathtakingly low and smooth, he caressed each word with his lips and tongue. God she wanted to be that song right now. "Where the hell did you learn to sing like that, Mr. Vaughn?" She was about ready to swoon. She had always had a thing for guys that sang.
"Oh, well, where does anyone learn to sing?" He grinned. And then they continued, together,
Oh, my love, my darling,
I've hungered for your touch
A long, lonely time.
And time goes by
So slowly and time
Can do so much. Are you still mine?
I need you love, I need your love
Godspeed your love to me.
Sydney's breath caught as she realized exactly what words she was singing. How could anything be so perfect? She sighed inside her head. When SD-6 was gone, she was pretty sure she was going to maul Vaughn, take him to some secret lair and just ravish him. She smiled at the thought. She hadn't thought that she was that kind of girl.
Vaughn sighed. This is such a perfect song. For him anyway. He had no idea how to gauge Sydney's feelings. He looked over to him and saw her faintly smiling at the window. Could she have some sort of feelings for him to? He knew she cared about him but did she love him? How did he compare to Danny? Or Noah? Or even Will? He pulled into the driveway. "Well, this is it. Home Sweet Home." He took the key out of the ignition just as the last strains of the song drifted away.
TBC… yes, it's edited hopefully for the better. REVIEW!!!
