Chapter Four - Times Like These You Learn to [Lie] Again
It's times like these you learn to live again
It's times like these you give and give again
It's times like these you learn to love again
It's times like these time and time again
"Times Like These" Foo Fighters
[Sydney's POV]
This town is just about the cutest place I have ever been in my life. EVER. I just know my time here will be exactly what I've needed. It's so small and adorable and...just plain cute. I love it. I can't wait to see it in the morning...
Now this Ed guy? He sound's like a riot. Vaughn's been ranting and raving about him ever since the plane. He better be as great as he says because he's hyping this man up almost as much as they hyped up all four of the Rocky sequels. And we all know how that turned out. Yes, I'm talking about Tommy Gunn and a fifty year old Rocky duking it out in a street fight.
I'm such a loser, I know.
Apparently, Ed owns this bowling alley. He practices law out of a place called "Stuckeybowl."
Wow, what a creative name. Sometimes you have to step back and appreciate the wonder that is the human imagination. It's mind boggling, really.
Anyway, even the bowling alley is cute! I really can't get enough of this town. And I've only been here for like half an hour!
"Are you sure he's going to be there?" I ask Vaughn, who looks like a kid in a candy shop, reaffirming my idea that this Ed must really be something.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. I called him earlier and we arranged it all." He says as he pulls the keys out of the ignition and unlocks the doors.
It looks like it's closed...The lights are off, but there are still a few cars in the parking lot. You know what? I've decided it, right here, right now. I wish I grew up here. This is almost as cute as 'Stars Hollow' in Gilmore Girls. But then again, Stars Hollow doesn't exist, but Stuckeyville does.
Note to Self: Look into this 'Stars Hollow' place in Connecticut. And possibly any Gilmore girls that may live there.
We're walking in and I can't help but grin. Vaughn can hardly contain himself and its adorable. I've never seen him so laid back and relaxed...
There's two guys and three girls. Must be Ed's friends, and--My, my. That must be Ed.
"Ed Stevens. How've you been, buddy?" Now he's in state of euphoria beyond simply a kid in a candy shop. He's a 14 year old boy with a room full of Playboys. And that, my friend, is pretty damn happy.
"I'm great! And you must be Sydney," Ed says, putting his hand out for me to shake. Even the men here are adorable. I shake his hand politely and return the smile he gave me so graciously.
"It's nice to meet you. Vaughn's only said good things about you." Ha! Good things? It's more on the side of worshipping.
I don't think I've seen bluer eyes in my life...Definately a tie between him and Will. But Ed's got something Will doesn't. The killer dark hair blue eyes combo. Gets a girl everytime.
I know what you're thinking: "You're madly in love with Michael Vaughn, Sydney! How could you possibly think this Ed guy is attractive?!"
And here's my response: There's enough Sydney Bristow to go around, boys.
Gotta stop zoning out and start paying attention.
"...I should introduce you to my friends. We're pretty much the life of Stuckeyville."
Holy crap. Even his friends are adorable!
"Of course." I seriously can't get over how excited Vaughn is! He's loving this!
"This is Nancy, Carol, Molly and Mike...And this is Michael Vaughn," Ed's introducing Vaughn and now, like the gentleman he is, Vaughn's shaking all of their hands. I laugh to myself as all the girls are practically drooling over themselves. I can't blame them, Vaughn is bangable. Period.
Okay, fine, I can blame them. Is she flirting with him? She's so not flirting with my Vaughn. Whoa, since when did he become my Vaughn? That's beside the point. All I know is that I suddenly have the urge to kick the blonde one -- Carol, I think it is -- in the face. And you know why. I'm giving her a look as I move up beside Vaughn. I think she got the point...I could so kick her ass. But then again, who's ass couldn't I kick?
Now I'm shaking everyone's hands...nothing new. A whole lot of Hi's, Hello's, and Get Your Hands Off Of My Hand You Filthy Bitch's. Same old, same old. After going through, I've decided they are still adorable. Despite Goldie Locks over there.
"So what's it like to be in the CIA?" Nancy, I think it is, suddenly asks. I'm shocked. No, beyond shocked. I come here to leave my old life behind, just for awhile, and this is just a rude awakening. Why the Hell does she know?!
I immediately shoot a glare at Vaughn who has already conveyed my message to Ed.
"What??" Ed responds, jokingly.
"Ed, this isn't funny. This is matter of life and death...You can't just go around telling people that you're having two CIA agents 'stay with you for awhile.' This is classified, and even though we're doing it to play it safe, we don't know what SD-6's capabilities are..."
"I'm sorry--"
Me, Vaughn and Ed automatically turn to Nancy to assure her that it wasn't her fault.
It really wasn't. It was all Ed's.
"Relax, Mike, I know," Ed says becoming serious.
"No, I don't think you do," I speak up, suprising everyone with my tone. I'm not always the little girl next door I look like. They better learn that now instead of the hard way.
"Syd..." Vaughn now facing me directly, and has lower his tone and octave. I really don't know how he does this to me...
"Vaughn, I don't want to--"
I lower my voice so it's barely above a whisper. I can hear everyone lean in a little, trying to catch what I said. Vaughn's eyes lock with mine and my heart practically melts.
"You won't." He says simply and confidently. I don't know how he's able to both read my mind and ease my soul at the same time. I swear, there's more to this man than meets the eye.
I nod softly and look back up at him, then over to the rest of the gang, Ed in particular. Ed had his head bowed, and clearly felt bad for what he had done.
"I'm sorry, Ed. If Vaughn trust's your judment, so do I."
And it's the truth. Old habits are hard to kick -- I've never really trusted anyone right away, but I have no say in this matter. Vaughn knows this man very well, and definately better than I do. I trust Vaughn so I should trust Ed too.
"--Plus, from what I hear, you were quite an agent..."
With that he laughs and smiles up at me with those bright blue eyes. He shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders.
"Yeah," he said sarcastically, then became serious once again, "but really, don't worry about it. You have every right not to trust me, especially after everything you've been through. I just want you to know that you really shouldn't have anything to fear, you'll be safe here."
I look up at him, truly grateful. I smile warmly then nod my head in agreement.
"I'm sure," I say, lightening my tone. "Oh God, I'm so sorry, I've probably freaked you guys out..."
And I think I really did. They all looked completely and utterly shocked. Like I'm an alien or something...
"Oh no," Goldie Locks says politely as she looks up at me. Okay, maybe she isn't that bad. "We're all kind of in shock still...This is all just happening so fast."
"Yeah, and that's mainly my fault." Ed says, stepping forward and motioning me and Vaughn towards two seats. "I shouldn't have popped this up on you guys so soon, but it's the only way I could go about it."
"Enough with the apologies!" Molly said with a grin. "We have to figure out what we're going to do with you two!"
"Oh, yeah, definately." Nancy added, speaking up. "The town is always abuzz when someone new comes."
"Yeah, the first few days will be a little tough, but I'm sure you'll fit right in," Goldie--uh, I mean, Carol, said sweetly.
I smiled at them. Not a fake smile. Not a sympathetic smile. A genuine smile. It's actually nice to not have to lie to people for once in my life. I guess I shouldn't get used to it, because it won't last for long...
I can tell Vaughn is looking at me. I rarely smile on my own will, atleast when I'm with him. But whenever I do, he always makes me feel like I'm the most beautiful person on the face of the Earth. I look over at him, and he blushes slightly, then looks up at the rest of the gang. Molly and Carol exchanged a glance, but Ed started talking again before I could speak up.
"Yeah, see, Molly here is the principle of our very own Stuckeyville High. Yes, the alma mater that I hold near and dear to my heart...especially seeing that I still hold the record time for chugging the largest tub of marinara sauce in the cafeteria to date."
I can't help but laugh. It's shocking how easy I feel around these guys...
"One minute 47 seconds, baby," Mike pipes in. "He came, he saw, he conquered."
"Yes!" Ed exclaims pointing directly at Mike. "And that man right there is the first person I thanked. If it wasn't for his hard work and patience, I wouldn't have been able to conquer the tub."
"Indeed." Mike replied smugly.
Vaughn was beaming. His smile is so incredibly infectious...
"Okay, as much as I really would love to relieve your glory days, Ed, I think we need to know what we're going to do. And I actually think that having all you guys in on it will make the whole process a lot easier. It's always better to have more heads involved in the planning. And I assume that Ed told you all that this information can't go beyond the six of us, right?"
Vaughn really does shine when he gets to be in control of things. He's definately the kind of guy who I could see climbing the ranks of the CIA in only a few years...If it wasn't for me, of course. I'm just holding him back, I know, but I don't have to think about that right now. We aren't Sydney Bristow and Michael Vaughn anymore, we're Sydney Hanton and Michael Saunders. And that's good enough for me.
I'm the one who asked if we could keep our own names. It makes the lies more bearable, I suppose. It's like I'm lying, but not truly lying. If that makes any sense, which it probably doesn't.
"So, we were thinking Sydney could pose as a substitute at Stuckeyville High, right Molls?"
~~~
They were here for an hour. Sixty minutes and I already felt like I'd known them my whole life. Nancy, Molly and Carol are the sweetest people I have ever met. And Mike and Ed too. They are just so carefree and fun; they live the life I wish I could have and I envy them for it.
And even though I didn't really like Carol at first, she's really growing on me. There's something about her that's just so down to earth and...familiar, I guess. Maybe the fact that she undeniably loves Ed but can't muster up the courage to admit it to herself, let alone him? Sounds familiar, doesn't it? How, you ask, do I know all of this? Of course she didn't tell me. Let's just say my spy sense has been hard at work.
So we basicall planned our covers the whole time. I'd sub for this Mrs. Smith woman who is actually on maternity leave and I'll teach English Lit Honors to Stuckeyville High Seniors. This will be the life I've always wanted. A teacher in a small town...with Michael Vaughn. Not having to worry about vengeance or protecting my friends from the evils of the world -- All I'll have to worry about is making it back from lunch in time for sixth period.
Mike and Nancy left first. Apparently they left their daughter Sarah with the babysitter and didn't tell her they'd be out for so long. Those two are a riot. Seriously, if I had friends like that during college, I never would have even considered joining SD-6.
I mean, Mike tried on Vaughn's gun holster. I was dying! It was seriously hysterical. And when he broke out into Eminem?!
Fourty-Five Minutes Earlier:
"Mike, give the man his holster back."
"Ah, come on, Nanc, this kind of opportunity comes once in a lifetime."
"No, you're not going to do this, Mike. Not here, not now! I actually like these two and you're going to scare them away so just stop!"
"Do it!" Ed exclaimed in the background, knowing full well of what his best friend was about to do.
"The tribe has spoken, Nanc..."
"God help us all..." Nancy sighed, and covered her eyes.
"You better LOSE yourself in the MUSIC the MOMENT you OWN it, you better NEVER LET IT GO! You only get ONE SHOT, do not miss your chance to BLOW, this opportunity...comes...once...in a...life...time..." Mike trailed off as Nancy's stare literally burned a hole through his face and Ed stood giving him a standing ovation from behind the counter.
Yeah, that was definately the highlight of my night. Mike's definately so white. And come to think of it, so is Eminem. So Mike is so white, he can't even rap like a white boy. Now that, my friend, is hysterical.
"Hey, Syd," Vaughn called out from Ed's office, "you ready to go?"
"I'm ready when you're ready." I call out, standing up and wiping the tiredness from my eyes. It had been a long day...even longer after having to deal with Will on the plane. Thankfully he understood, and despite the fact that he'd miss me, knew that this was the only option.
"So you guys can stay at my place for awhile, until we figure out what to do about that situation," Ed said as he picked up his stuff and made his way toward the entrance of Stuckeybowl.
"Sounds good," Vaughn replied as he held the door open for me. "And, again, I'm sorry for the hassle, man. It shouldn't be for too long though."
"Oh, no problem, I really don't mind." Ed responded, smiling.
How is he always so happy? I guess if I lived in Stuckeyville, Ohio where my biggest worry was waiting for a certain Goldie Locks high school teacher to admit her undying love to me, I'd be just as chipper as he is.
I can't help but wonder what kind of stuff Vaughn and Ed pulled as college roommates back at Columbia. I would ask, but I'm pretty sure I can't keep my eyes open long enough to even get to the car...
You'd think after all this time of travelling arond the world practically non-stop, I'd get used to the jet lag.
I guess my body has already accustomed itself to living a normal life, huh?
Did I ever mention how much I love this town?
I tiredly get into the car, having zoned out everything that Vaughn and Ed said in the past few minutes.
I think I dozed off the second I sat down because the next thing I remembered was waking up at Michael 'Saunders' side...
END CHAPTER FOUR
