Unusual Talk of the Future

A/N: I'm sorry to have taken do long to get this up, but between school starting, softball practice, and football games, I'm lucky to have gotten this up at all! I hope I won't take as long with the next chapter!

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After he spoke to Sydney, Vaughn had spent most of the remainder of the day looking forward to the evening.

Sitting in his car on his way to her apartment, he was even more excited about the upcoming weekend. It was something he and Sydney had both wanted to do for a long time. They needed to spend some time together without work interference. Time without having to constantly be alert.

"So," Vaughn began over dinner. " Do you think your dad has figured us out yet?"

"Yes," Sydney said, rolling her eyes. "He gave me this look when I told him I was going off. It's like, he wasn't around when I was a teenager, so he feels like he has to make up for it now. He's going to drive us all insane," Sydney complained.

"He'll get used to it," Vaughn laughed.

"I don't know. He still complains about me seeing my mother." she looked up quickly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to drag her into this."

"No, it's okay. You're right. Your father's pretty stubborn," Vaughn said lightly, hoping everything he felt whenever he thought about Irina Derevko didn't show on his face. Evidently it did.

Vaughn avoided looking into Sydney's eyes. He knew she regretted saying anything, but he didn't want to see the pain reflected there as well. Irina Derevko was a topic everyone avoided, yet somehow she still managed to slip in and ruin things. Finally, when she remained silent, he was forced to look up. Into her sympathetic eyes.

Sydney smiled when he looked up.

"Let's make a deal. This weekend, we won't talk about work," Sydney said. "No Kendall, no Dad, no Derevko, no worries."

"Deal," Vaughn agreed willingly.

"Starting now," she added.

"Okay. Have you ever thought about what you'll do once you're out of the CIA?" he asked thoughtfully after a moment.

"Hey!" she said playfully.

"That's not work."

"No, I guess not."

"You didn't answer." He grinned.

"No. I guess I haven't. I guess I've always had to just live in the present. No point in imagining a future I'll never have, right?" she asked, unable to keep a certain amount of sadness from her voice.

"What do you mean?" Vaughn asked quietly.

"SD-6," she said quickly. "I always assumed I'd have a normal life after it was gone. But I guess, in the back on my mind, I always knew I'd never get it, because I've never given it any thought."

Vaughn was sure that wasn't exactly what she meant, but he let it drop. She obviously didn't want to talk about it, what ever it was.

"What about where you'd go?" Vaughn continued instead.

She shrugged. "If I hadn't gotten mixed up in this, I might have moved off after college. I don't know where I'd have gone, though," Sydney said dejectedly, despite her attempt at lightness.

"What about when you're not an agent any more? I'd like to have a normal life. You know, settle down, have a family," Vaughn admitted, trying to cheer her up. "Get out of it entirely."

"Yeah. Me too," she said, smiling faintly. "But do people like us even have a chance at a normal life?" she added, not expecting an answer.

Vaughn put his hand over hers.

"Sure we do, Syd. We deserve it," he added, smiling encouragingly.

She smiled. "You're right. We do deserve it." Her smile faded and she dropped her eyes. "But deserving it doesn't mean we'll get it."

"No. But we can try," Vaughn commented, realizing as he did that it sounded much more adamant than he'd intended.

Finally, Sydney burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry. I've been horrible tonight. We should be celebrating," she added, disappearing into the kitchen. When she reappeared she was holding two glasses of wine. She handed one to Vaughn and raised her own. "To our trip. May we remember it for the rest of our lives," Sydney said, smiling.

"Let's remember it in a good way," Vaughn added, grinning.

Sydney laughed. "It better not be the worst trip of my life. It'll have to be pretty bad to beat Taipei," Sydney joked.

"Hey," Vaughn admonished lightly. "No talking about work, remember?"

"Oh, shut up," she murmured as she leaned over to kiss him.

"Gladly," he mumbled back.

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Okay, this may seem like it's going nowhere, but I promise it picks up next chapter. S/V shippies will love where this is going…I know I do! I just had a little trouble getting started, so it's a bit rough at first. I had some good responses to the first chapter, so I hope this is up to par!