Title: The Love of a Lifetime

(Vaughn's POV)

I stared at her in shock. She quickly began to grow nervous, "Michael?" she asked me, "I just told you that I loved you too. Isn't that what you wanted to hear?"

I quickly snapped out of my trance, picking her up and swinging her around in a full circle, completely forgetting that we were on the pier. I quickly set her back down pulling her lips up to mine.

It felt so good to kiss her again this way, something I had been longing to do every lonely night I was by myself in my heart, but with Alice in reality.

When we pulled away a few minutes (or hours, I simply could not remember) later, I had to grab Sydney's waist, as her knees turned to jelly.

Mine too were beginning to shake, I quietly grabbed her hand and said, "We had better get back to the restaurant, Marshall and Carrie told me to go after you, they would be so happy to see you come back."

She smiled, "Yeah, let's go back. I still want to tell them how beautiful the ceremony," she replied, "Plus we've got something to celebrate."

"Yeah, what's that?" I asked, a smile gracing my features as I knew exactly what she was talking about.

She playfully smacked my arm, "Stop being so dense. You know what I'm talking about."

"Actually I don't think I do," I told her, but she obviously knew I was laying and just wanted her to say it again.

"Fine! We have to celebrate Marshall and Carrie's wedding," she explained, trying to smother her grin, "And..."

"And?" I questioned curiously.

"And we have to celebrate that I love you and you love me too," she said, and when I didn't respond, she asked, "Right?"

I smiled then, I loved how insecure she could be. I grabbed her hand and brought it to my mouth, kissing the backside, "Of course," was what I simply said before I began to drag her back to my car, "We need to get back to the reception now."

"Yeah we do," she replied, "And who knows, maybe soon we'll be at another reception." Her devilish grin grew as I looked over and raised my eyebrow. Was she trying to tell me what I think she was trying to tell me?

* * * *

Sydney and I walked in the main door hand-in-hand. Everyone must have known what had happened because as we walked into the main foyer of the restaurant, all eyes turned on us.

Sydney must have noticed too, because she squeezed my hand. Marshall was nice enough to break the awkward stares. "Dinner should be ready soon," he said, "Why doesn't everyone sit down."

As everyone was finding a seat, Marshall and Carrie slipped through the crowd, heading our way.

"I'm glad you could finally make it Syd," Carrie told her happily.

"Yeah," Sydney replied, "I just had some issues I needed to sort out."

"And I take it you sorted them out?" Marshall asked, pointedly looking down at Sydney's and my entwined hands.

"Yep," I told them, "Everything's perfect." And for the first time in my life I actually believed it.

* * * *

What I didn't know was that Alice had seen the invitation addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Michael Vaughn when it had come in the mail five months before.

She figured that even though we were getting divorced, she was still welcome. She had no clue that Sydney and I were even together, although she would soon find out.

It was about twenty minutes after dinner had been served and everyone was dancing but Sydney and I. We were sitting in a booth, I was sitting on the outside corner facing the dance floor and she was sitting on my lap.

We were watching everyone else dancing, me placing a kiss along her collarbone every once in a while.

This is what I had missed while she was missing and I was married to Alice, just sitting around doing nothing, it was one of my favorite things to do.

That was how we were positioned when Alice walked in, completely lost in the moment.

It was then that she walked in, immediately searching me out, hoping that maybe we could talk, try to work things out. She wasn't expecting what she was about to find.

"Michael, there you are," she cooed, "I was hoping..."

And then she noticed Sydney in my lap, or better yet, Rita to her. "Who is that?" she asked me suspiciously, then Sydney turned her head, "Rita?"

"Alice this is Sydney, my girlfriend," I introduced.

Alice had wanted to scream, I knew it all by her face, I had seen that look many times during our short marriage. "Girlfriend?" she questioned in disbelief, "We've been divorced for less than two months and you've already got a girlfriend. I thought you loved me, were you seeing this tramp? Is that why we got divorced? Man you sure work fast Michael."

"Tramp?" Sydney asked, then she looked at me, "Did she just call me a tramp?" I nodded my head.

"Syd, why don't you let me handle this," I replied, "Go out and dance and I'll meet you out there when I'm done."

"Okay," she said reluctantly, I leaned in and quickly brushed my lips against hers. "I love you," I whispered into her ear.

"I love it when you say that," she told me, "And just for the record, I love you too." Then she slunk off onto the dance floor catching up with Weiss and beginning to dance with him.

I watched her for a minute before I turned my steely gaze towards Alice, "What are you doing here Alice?" I asked, not bothering to hold back my anger.

"They were my friends too Michael," she replied, "When we were married."

"Well we're not married anymore," I told her as if she didn't know, "And they didn't even like you."

"Obviously we're not married anymore," she said, pointedly glancing towards Sydney on the dance floor, "I thought you loved me Michael, I really thought you did."

"I might have at one point loved you, but I was in love with Sydney," I explained, anger rising.

"But I want to work things out between us Michael," she replied, "I really want to try and work things out."

As if to answer her, I stalked off towards the dance floor, grabbing her and pulling her head to mine.

"Well nice to see you again too," she said, "You do realize that Alice isn't going anywhere right?"

"I don't care what Alice does," I told her, "I just want to dance with my beautiful girlfriend that I love so much."

"That can be arranged," she grinned at me.

TBC...

Please read and review!!! ~nicole~