Chapter Two - Moment in the Sun
[Title from the one time Ed theme, "Moment in the Sun" by Clem Snide.]
Vaughn's Point of View
"Wait, let me get this straight…"
What more is there to get straight? We're on our way to Stuckeyville, Ohio -- the Smalltown USA if there ever was one. The last place SD-6 would ever, and I really mean ever consider searching. I doubt they even know it exists. In all honesty, no one knows it exists except for the people who live there, and those who may have friends there. Like me.
"We're going to Stuckeyville, Ohio and we'll stay with a friend of yours from college?!"
Yeah, she thinks I'm crazy. I should probably clarify right about now instead of staring at the floor, looking defeated, like I always do. I think I can, I think I can…
"Relax, Syd, this isn't as insane as you may think it is." It really isn't! She's blowing this way out of proportion…"He's ex-CIA and it's the most secure place we could find."
"Ha. Now that's funny."
"Sydney, listen to me. This really is the safest place we could possibly go. You just have to trust me on this one. And it's not like it was my final decision to make…Devlin and even your father spend a long time figuring out what they should do, and this is what they decided on."
"My father? He had a say in this?"
"Of course," I say with a hint of 'obviously, he'd so kick my ass if he didn't' in my voice. And it's true. Jack could kick my ass any day of the week.
"So we're just supposed to stay in this Stuckey-town with no CIA backup or support until SD-6 is completely shut down? While my friends and family are still in LA within reach of Arvin Sloan's cohorts?"
"First of all, it's Stuckeyville. Ville." Why is that so hard for people to comprehend. Stuck-ey-ville. "Secondly, Why are you under the impression that Sloane is still in control? Yeah, we may have screwed up, but it didn't completely ruin the mission. Sloane is in CIA custody. Jack is dealing with SD-6 right now, and in order to not raise suspicions, we needed to get out of there. We don't know what information may have been sent to the Alliance through the chip in that man's neck. This is safest way. If Will and Francie's lives are really in danger, the we'll take care of it. Trust me."
"Sloane is in CIA custody?!"
Holy sh-t. Didn't I tell her? I so told her…
"Why the Hell didn't you tell me?!"
Sh-t.
"I did--"
"No, you so did not."
"But I did--"
"Vaughn, I'm not going to play this game with you. If Sloane is in our custody, why am I here? I can be back there, working to bring down SD-6 for good. Fixing the complications that I made."
"They weren't your fault." They really weren't. Sometimes she seems to forget that she too is human, just like the rest of us. Everyone makes mistakes. Yeah, that might have been the biggest mistake in the history of mistakes, but it was a mistake nonetheless. You deal with it and move on.
"Yes, it was. There's no denying that fact. All I want to know is why I have to be shipped out when everything else could be so much easier if I stayed behind."
"That's the thing, Syd." I swear, she never seems to catch the obvious, does she? "Yes, you are our strongest asset inside SD-6, but your cover has been blown. The rest of SD-6 might not have any clue about that, but Sloane does. And we don't know what Sloane's capabilities are at this point, despite the fact that he's in CIA custody. You're one of the best, and we can't afford to lose you. I can't afford to lose you."
She slowly looks up at me. Something in her disposition has changed. It's like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. Was that whole thing she just put up an act? I have a strange hunch that it might have been, but why would she do that? It makes no sense whatsoever. It's not Sydney Bristow's style. She's always all business, and is never ever fake. Especially when it comes to SD-6.
She's smiling. Not a bright, excited smile, but a relieved smile. Huh, funny. As if a weight has been lifted off of her shoulder, perhaps? Yeah, that's definitely it. She just needed some sort of verbal confirmation that she was doing the right thing. That's the only way she would have come without feeling guilty for doing the wrong thing. That has to be it.
She wants this little trip as much as I do, I just know it. She knew all along that everything was secure back home, and this was simply for precautionary measures. But she knows that I know her. And in any other situation, she wouldn't even be on this plane right now. She really wouldn't.
"I know, Vaughn."
She looks tired. She doesn't have to lie to me, I thought she knew that. This is probably not the time to bring it up. She looks so content. So happy. She knows its over. At least as far as she's concerned. But in her mind, she's supposed to be the one to take them down. With her own bare hands. And she slipped up. She slipped up, and deep down inside, she's happy for it. She's glad that she gets to have an early out of an operation that took years out of her life, and now she can finally be happy and normal.
Ha! Normal. Who could ever live a normal life after the one we've led?
"Just think of it as an early vacation," I say, now smiling since the tension has been released from the air, "preceding the end of your life in espionage, of course."
There it is! That's the smile I've waited so long to see.
What has happened to me?! I sound like such an old man! What I mean, is that she doesn't look pained. She doesn't look tired. She doesn't look scared. She looks happy. Genuinely happy. And now she's laughing!
"What kind of a place is this Stuckeyville, anyway?" She says, putting her hair behind her ear. Some people's nervous mannerisms bug the Hell out of me, including my own. I mean, furrowing my eyebrows? I don't know why I do it. And I sure as Hell knows it's incredibly annoying. But hers? The way she lightly pulls her hair back, with a hint of shyness…but mainly confidence. It's like she knows she's the master of her nervous mannerism, and she's milking it for all it's worth.
"Well, actually, like I said, I have a friend down there. Ed Stevens. I went to college with him in New York. He actually went through CST while he was going through law school. He decided law was what he wanted to pursue so he did. He stayed in New York, me and Weiss were transferred to LA, and the rest is history. You'll love him. He's quite a…character, I guess you could say…"
No, Ed was far from a character. If I didn't know him, I'm fairly certain I'd think he was a crazy person. Seriously. Crazy as in Ozzy Ozzborne hopped up on 10 times the crack he's ever been on. That's how crazy he is. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.
"So he's actually a good person to go to if we needed to disguise ourselves and stay there for awhile? Will it really be safe for us to stay?"
Now she looks a little uncertain. But not fake, hostile uncertainty, like before. It's like she doesn't want anything to ruin our venture into the normal world. Away from the bustle of the city and the dangers of being involved in "covert branches" of the government. Well, maybe I'm letting my own feelings cloud my assessment, but at this point, I don't care. I'm here with Sydney and that's all that matters.
"Definitely. He was one of the most amazing agents in training our instructors had ever seen. He would have been incredible. Really. It's a shame he didn't follow through. But he actually had a lot of pressure from his father to join the CIA, and he really hated his father. So I guess going into law was sort of his way of rebelling against his overbearing Dad."
"Really? Was his father also CIA?"
I nod. Now that I think of it, Ed really has had an interesting life. You've got growing up in Stuckeyville. Going to college in New York City. Going through CST to join the CIA while he's in Law School. Quitting CST…becoming a lawyer. Moving back to Stuckeyville, and buying a bowling alley to win the affections of the girl of his dreams.
Yeah, interesting is an understatement.
Would I buy a bowling alley to win the affections of Sydney? Yeah, I probably would.
No, I definitely would.
Sometimes I wonder how me and Ed became such good friends, but now all my doubts are gone. We are really the same people. It's quite frightening…
"You'll really like this place, Syd. I just know it." I say smiling, as I look out the window as the clouds clear and the green countryside comes into view.
She smiles.
Did I mention how much I love that smile? Yeah, now that I think of it, I probably did.
END CHAPTER TWO
