Authors Note: Thank you soooo much for all your reviews you guys.you guys rock!!! I left a note for you in the Reviews so you can read it if you want. yeah.

I'M BACK FROM VEGAS!!!!!

In response to the request for a list of my fics:

An Undefinable Sweetness

A Familiar Stranger

The Whole Truth

Mornings of Mist

Through the Darkness

The Watch

With My Dying Breath

Final Words to You My Love

Far From Home

They can all be found my pressing "Jennifer" whenever it is purple. thanks again.read, enjoy, review. I hope I did okay~

-Jenn

20.

She took a step back. This couldn't be happening. Danny was dead. He was dead. He had been shot. She had found him. . . she was the one who had seen him. . . in the bathtub. . . with all the blood. . .

Sydney grabbed her stomach and squatted to the floor, trying to quiet her fears. Breathe. Just Breathe. She looked up, convinced that she would look up and he would be gone. A figment of her imagination.

And he was. There was only the sunlight shining through the doorway. She sighed. Maybe this was some weird form of engagement jitters?

But then she felt a hand on her shoulder and saw him standing by her. It was Danny. Unmistakably Danny. There were the lips she had kissed a thousand times, the hands that she had held a million times. . . the eyes that she had stared into for hours. Tears reached her eyes. She didn't know what to think. He pulled her up and she leaned against the wall, terror lighting her eyes.

"You're not Danny. You're dead. Danny's dead. He died years ago." She raised her hands, trying to ward him off.

He grabbed his hands in hers. "I'm Danny. And I'm not dead."

Suddenly she was angry. Why couldn't she just be happy? She had gotten over Danny and had found someone else. Someone who made her deliriously happy. Someone who knew everything about her, knew what she would think and feel about anything. . . someone who sent her five dozen roses for no reason other than love for her. This couldn't be happening. She was supposed to be Sydney Vaughn. She looked up at him again. Yes. Those were Danny's eyes. Her anger formed a ball in her stomach and she wrenched her hands away from him.

"You're NOT Danny. Danny died. Danny's dead. Why are you here?. . . What are you trying to do to me?" Hot tears brimmed her eyes, blurring her vision. She slumped towards the floor again.

Tears also formed in his eyes. "I'm just trying to come back to you. I've been trying to get back to you for years, Sydney."

"No. No, you can't. You haven't. You're not here."

He took her in his arms suddenly. "Yes I am. Can't you feel me? I'm right here."

She wanted to drop kick him. But she couldn't. This was Danny. She shook her head. Crying. "No. You're not- you're not Danny."

He suddenly lifted his head, looking at her. "I'm too late aren't I? You've left me. . . you gave up on me." He grabbed her left hand and looked at it, twisting the ring until the sparkling diamond came into view. "You gave up on me."

Sydney shook her head, wanting to deny what he was saying. Until she realized what he was saying. "How was I supposed to stay with you? You were dead! I found you in the bathtub. There was blood everywhere. How the HELL was I supposed to stay true to you? You died. I had to move on."

He turned his back to her. Then, in such a soft voice that she could barely hear it, he spoke. "You should know more than anyone how easy it is to fake a death."

"Not that well. I SAW you. I saw your face."

He turned back to her, anger filling his own eyes. "Did you? Did you really? How closely did you look at my face? Did you see the scar on my throat? Did you check the length of my hair or the exact color of my skin? Or did you just walk in, see somebody that looked like me and then all the blood? Did you see me? Or were you blinded by what you assumed you saw? Was it really me? Or was it everything put together that, as a whole, made you think it was me? What did you really see? Was it the man you loved or the blood that covered him?"

Sydney's mouth dropped open. She didn't remember. She didn't remember at all. She thought back. "No. No, I kneeled in front of you. I cried on you. It was you."

"It WASN'T me. It was a person who looked like me but it wasn't me. I'm not dead."

"Why now? WHY NOW?"

"Why not? Do you even know what I've been through these past couple of years Sydney?"

She looked down. "I don't want to know."

"At first I was tortured. They wanted to know how much you told me. They wanted to know how much you had figured out. And then they kept me. They wanted me for some future project. As a safety precaution. They were going to kill me but then they realized how much more valuable I would be alive."

She felt the tears fall, splashing onto the ground below. "I'm sorry Danny." She couldn't say anything else.

"Did you hear about the plane? The one that went missing?"

Sydney looked up at him. "Lufthansa."

"I was on that plane. And now I'm here. I was going to your apartment and I walked by the florist shop and heard someone say your name." He looked at the roses spread around the room. "I guess he got here. And I guess you found another unknowing, innocent son of a bitch to fall in love with you."

Sydney slapped his cheek. "Don't say anything about a man you don't know. I don't know what happened to you but you've changed. You're not the Danny I fell in love with, you're not the one who proposed to me. He's still dead to me. And you. . . I don't know who you are." The words came out surprisingly easy. But she felt her heart grow heavier and heavier with each word. Danny had been her first love. And then he had died. And now he was standing in front of her. But he was warped; not the person he used to be.

Her words had stung him. She knew that now. Softly she placed a hand on his cheek. "What happened to you Danny?"

He looked up, his eyes still smoldering with a mixture of anger and sadness and. . . defeat? "What you're looking at. . ." he said. "Is someone who has had all the hope and love and joy drained out of him. Maybe I'm not the person I used to be. But I can be him again. And I want you in my life." He leaned towards her, trying to kiss her.

She almost leaned in, drawn by chemistry and memories, but pulled back at the last minute. "Danny, I'll help you but I'm not engaged to you anymore. I'm engaged to someone else."

He turned her towards him, voice slightly cracking. "Does he love you as much as I do? Does he take care of you? Does he sacrifice everything? Would he die for you? Because I did. I died over and over and over again for you."

Sydney nodded, blinking back tears. "He does. He would do anything for me and I love him more than anything."

He swore. "How the hell could you do this to me? Don't you realize that you were the only thing that kept me alive? Through all the torture, through all the questioning, your face was the only thing that kept me SANE. You left me. I can't believe you gave up on me so quickly."

"Quickly? Danny I died the day you did! I was completely destroyed. It was my fault! IT WAS ALL MY FAULT. But I thought you were in the grave. You've changed. The Danny I knew would have wanted me to move on."

"Only if he was dead."

"He IS dead."

"I'm RIGHT HERE." He grabbed her arms in a horribly tight grasp. "I loved you Sydney Bristow and I still love you and you can't run away from me this time. I never died and you were engaged to me first. I'm sorry I'm not the sweet man you remember but under the circumstances, I think you owe me something." He mashed his lips on top of hers.

She struggled against him and finally gave in to her instincts, lifting a foot and sweeping it sideways. He fell heavily and took her with him. Banging her head against his, she picked herself up and ran for the door.

Danny was dead. Danny was dead. Danny was dead. The words kept rolling around in her head as tears dropped from her eyes. She SAW him. He was in the bathtub. But had she looked closely enough? She wasn't sure of that anymore. She ran, breathing hard, feeling adrenaline pump through her system and bringing her legs forward despite her shaking body.

Her hair flew around her face as she reached a pay phone and looked back, making sure he wasn't behind her.

She never thought she would be running away from Danny.

Shaking, she called Vaughn's number. She tried to stop her trembling fingers but couldn't.

"Vaughn."

"Michael. . . "

"Sydney? Hi sweetie, how are you?"

Then he could only hear her sobs, her harsh cries coming through the ear- piece of the phone. Only the gasping and wheezing of his fiancé as she caught her breath. Michael jumped up from his chair, suddenly scared. "Sydney? Are you okay? Where are you?"

She couldn't speak. She just cried and cried and cried, moaning and hiccuping. Any attempt to control herself was forsaken and Michael heard her, wheezing and all.

"Sydney? Baby, please tell me where you are! What's happening? Sydney?!" Vaughn felt a desperation he had never known before. His Sydney. . . something was really wrong. He had never seen -heard- her so upset before.

Then there was only the sound of the dial tone. Vaughn looked at the phone in his hand, breathing hard as if he was the one running. He called his home number but there was no answer. What was he supposed to do? He paced his office, waiting, hoping, praying that Sydney would come to him. He couldn't lose her now. She needed him. Almost as much as he needed her.

~:~

Sydney didn't care about the looks and stares she got from people. The building was a few blocks away and she knew that she was almost at her breaking point but let her adrenaline take her the lost few blocks. Her legs were wobbling, dangerously unsteady when they hit the ground. The wind slapped at her face viciously as the hot tears kept dropping. She pushed through the doors, oblivious to anything or anyone except the way to Vaughn's office.

Still slightly in control on herself, she twisted off her ring and slipped it in her pocket before reaching his office. She sighed. She was here. She was safe. She rested her head against the door for a moment before she slid to the ground next to it, sitting on the cold tile. And brought her knees to her face and cried softly, shaking like a leaf.

~:~

Michael shook his leg slightly, hardly able to concentrate on the meeting occurring in front of him. Where was Sydney? He looked at Kendall. His lips were moving but he couldn't make out the words. Full of nervous energy, He tapped his pencil on his paper until he saw the stares of the people around him. "Sorry," he said, apologetically.

And that's when he heard the thump on his door. . . almost as if someone had thrown his or her body into it. And then he heard the soft cries from outside. Sydney.

"Excuse me." He said hurriedly and walked to the door.

And when he opened it, his breath caught in his throat.

Sydney, his Sydney, was crumpled on the floor, hair mussed, eyes red, and throat sore from her sobs. He looked around suddenly and a thousand pair of eyes quickly looked down. He pulled her to him and took her in his embrace. She slumped in his arms.

"Sydney? Honey, what's wrong?" He whispered in her ear. He knew that there would be questions later and their relationship would be in danger but he didn't give a damn right now. Besides, he as a handler was a confidante to his asset. It was expected. He turned his attention to her then.

She slumped against him, letting him hold up all her weight.

He smoothed the hair away from her face. She looked so tired. And scared. "Sydney?"

She took a breath and hiccuped before trying again. "Danny. . ." she stopped, crying into his shoulder again.

Vaughn was bewildered. Sydney had gotten over Danny years ago. . . or was she stuck on him again now that they were engaged? Was she getting jitters? He hugged her closer. "It's okay to think about Danny, Sydney. I know you loved him. It's okay. I'm not angry."

She shook her head furiously though her face was still buried in the crook of his neck. "No," she whispered into his chin.

"What is it?" He said tenderly, stroking her back. Damn the CIA. He didn't care anymore.

"Danny's alive."

Vaughn almost dropped her.

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TBC

Sorry about the longness of the chapter and sorry if it was kind of lame but I got really into it and here's what came out~

REVIEW!!!!!

-Jenn