Title: Mona Lisa Smile
Author: Liz (liz@endlessdreams.net)
Distribution: my site, ff.net, Cover Me. All others, see profile.
Rating: G
Spoilers/Timeline: Future Fic, nothing after The Getaway happened, but no spoilers for any eps.
Ship: Syd/Vaughn
Summary: When she smiles, she looks like the Mona Lisa. Old Cover Me challenge fic.

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When she smiles, she looks like the Mona Lisa.

We saw it once, together. It was a big risk. She was on an SD-6 mission to Paris, and I was her CIA backup. When it was over, we met at the Louvre. We weren't even disguised, but we walked through its hallowed halls hand in hand. We stood in front of the Mona Lisa and I told her that sometimes she reminds me of it. She smiled that sad smile and nodded. She knew what I meant.

I was flipping channels one night, a few days after she brought back the antidote to the virus and saved my life for the second time over. She was on my mind, as usual. I was thinking about her mother, and what I had said about my feelings for her. I wasn't really paying attention to the television until I heard what was being said.

"The tough thing about following your heart is what people forget to mention, that sometimes your heart takes you to places you shouldn't be, places that are as scary as they are exciting and as dangerous as they are alluring, and sometimes your heart takes you to places that can never lead to a happy ending."

I looked up at the television. A girl and a guy standing outside at night. They said thank you and goodnight, then the girl started to walk away. Then came the voiceover again.

"And that's not even the difficult part. The difficult part is when you follow your heart, you leave normal, you go into the unknown."

She turned around and hugged the guy.

"And once you do, you can never go back."

At that moment, it was all clear to me. I had no idea what the situation in this show was; I didn't recognize the actor or the actress. The credits said it was called Roswell, but that didn't ring any bells with me. Still, in that moment, I could see myself reflected in that sad-eyed boy, and I could see her reflected in the dark-haired girl. And I knew that no matter what would happen, I had to follow my heart. She was my heart.

Alice was normal, but she wasn't my heart. I called her, and explained to her that I couldn't keep trying to fix a broken relationship. I heard her barely contained sob, then she said okay and hung up the phone. I put the phone back on the hook and stared at it for endless minutes. Then I picked it up and dialed the number I knew better than I knew my own.

"Hello?"

"Joey's Pizza?"

"Sorry, wrong number."

I took a deep breath and headed to the warehouse. That meeting changed everything. From then on, we stopped holding back. We met secretly, we took unimaginable risks.

Soon after our little excursion to the Louvre, Sloane finally caught on. The CIA was going to send us to separate safe houses, but she put her foot down. It didn't take long for her to convince them to send us somewhere together. She can be very persuasive. She even convinced them to let us have a small and quick marriage ceremony with Will, Francie, and her father there.

We've been in a CIA safe house in the Scottish Highlands for a year now. She loves to go for walks over the fields. It makes her feel free, even though we can't go near anything that remotely resembles a town.

We were sitting in front of the fire in out little cottage. She was reading, and I was just watching her. She looked up from her book and gave me a questioning look.

"No regrets?" I asked quietly.

"No regrets," she replied.

And she smiled her Mona Lisa smile.