April 4, 5:40 pm
"Hey, where have you been hiding all
day?" Weiss joked walking over to Vaughn.
"Mostly in the parking garage," Vaughn muttered to
himself.
"What?" Weiss asked.
"Nothing," Vaughn said irritably.
"You're in a mood," Weiss said.
Vaughn sighed, "I just have a lot on my mind."
"Oh," Weiss said, "Hey, I know something that
will make you feel better. You remember our friend Haladki? Well rumor has it
that he got suspended this morning. Don't know what for though."
'It might have something to do with him shouting top secret
information in an open hallway,' Vaughn thought to himself.
Weiss looked at him for a minute waiting for a reaction,
"Come on man, what's the matter?"
Vaughn looked at Weiss for a minute then shook his head,
"It's nothing important, Weiss. I'll be fine."
"Are you sure? Because if you need to talk then I'd be
happy to take you to get drunk and pretend to listen while you spill,"
Weiss responded grinning.
Vaughn chuckled, "Nah, that's okay.
"Alright then, see you tomorrow," Weiss said.
"Yeah, see you," Vaughn muttered as he slipped on
his jacket and got ready to leave the command center.
6:30 pm
"Vaughn, did you hear about this
operation that they sent my dad on in Bangkok?" Sydney asked when they
arrived at her house.
"I did this afternoon but he was already gone by
then," Vaughn answered.
"Well isn't that weird? That he wouldn't even tell
us?" she asked.
"Well maybe it was classified," he said.
"I suppose, but still I think he would tell me,"
she said, Vaughn could hear the pain in her voice.
"I wouldn't read too much into it, Syd," he said
and instinctively ran his hand down her arm, "I know your father has deceived
you before, but I don't think now is one of those times. He probably just didn't
want to burden you."
"You're probably right," she sighed and then forced
a smile, "It's probably nothing."
"Well, I'm going to go take a shower. If you want a
drink or something just ummm....help yourself," she finished softly. He
smiled as she walked to the bathroom and the water started up. He set his
briefcase down on the floor and walked into the kitchen. He found a bottle of
beer in her fridge and took a sip. As he turned back toward the living room he
noticed her the case with her laptop computer in it sitting on the
counter.
He set the bottle down and slid the computer out of the case.
He opened it and flipped the switch to 'on'. At a cursory glance her desktop
seemed perfectly normal, but that didn't necessarily mean there was nothing
suspicious to be found. He looked up toward the hallway where the bathroom was.
The water was still running behind the closed door. He slipped the device Sloane
had given him out of his pocket and held it for a minute.
He could do it before she got out of the shower, copying the hard drive
would only take a couple minutes, and if he did it then it would clear
everything up. At least he would know for sure if he made the copy. He suddenly
realized what he was about to do. He shoved the device back into his pocket,
flipped off her computer and pushed it back into the case. He went into the living room
feeling a little shaken by what had almost happened. A couple minutes later he
heard the water stop and Sydney's footsteps down the hallway. He sighed and
looked at the beer in his hand, getting the feeling that he might need more than
one that night.
April 5, 9:45 am
Vaughn was horrendously late. He had
stayed at Sydney's the night before but while she lay next to him asleep all
night he stayed awake alternating between staring at the ceiling, and then her,
and then back to the ceiling. By the time her alarm clock went off at 7:00 he
had gotten about a half an hour of sleep. He went home immediately to get ready
for work. He gave Donovan food and water and then got in the shower. He didn't
remember the time passing, but the next thing he realized the water was ice cold
and it was almost 9:00 already.
From there a traffic jam had made him even more late, but he
felt so awful that he barely even cared about how Kendall would react. At the
moment crawling into the storm drain that had backed up and caused the traffic
jam sounded pretty good.
A horn from the car behind him alerted him to the fact that
his lane had started moving. He pressed down on the accelerator and began
moving. As he watched the street disinterestedly, he caught a glimpse of a car
parked in front of a cafe to his left. He quickly turned around and headed back
toward the cafe. He parked about a half a block down and walked up to it. It
looked like Sydney's car. He discreetly peered in the back seat. Yep it definitely
was Sydney's, the first aid kit and blue jacket that she always kept in the back
were there. Why was Sydney here though? She should be at work by now.
He felt himself starting to get suspicious. 'There's a
perfectly rational explanation,' he thought, but found himself walking in the
door of the cafe anyway. He blended himself into the line of people waiting at the counter, and scanned the room for any sign of Sydney. She was
standing in line ahead of him. What was she doing? Was she talking to someone?
It looked like she was but he couldn't tell exactly.
He moved a bit to get a better view of her, and then swore to
himself when she turned around. He moved back over behind some of the people
near him and waited until she passed. Once he felt confidant that she had left
without seeing him, he got out of the line and went back toward the door. As he
stepped out into the street he expected to see her car going down the road but
it was still empty and parked in the same spot.
'Damnit! Where did she go?'
Just as he was about to look around he heard a voice from
behind him, "Vaughn?"
'Damnit again!'
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