She had been in that room, by herself, over an hour. Vaughn contacted Jack to tell him they were coming home. He thanked Vaughn and sounded relieved. 'If Jack knew what I had done to his daughter today, he would have shot me or maybe something more painful and lingering.'
Vaughn approached the door. There was no sound from inside. He worried that maybe she had found a way to leave on her own and would never be seen again. He knocked on the door. "Sydney... we have a flight in three hours... we need to go."
Not hearing anything, his hand reached for the knob. The door opened on its own. Sydney stood there, fully dressed, face washed and hair pulled back. The only evidence of the encounter was her red eyes that now looked devoid of all feeling. "I'm ready," was all she said. Her eyes looked straight ahead, never once lighting on Vaughn.
As they made their way past the caretaker's desk, Sydney stopped to say her greetings, in Chinese of course. The man handed her a container of more rice and fish, which she accepted with thanks.
Vaughn led her out the door. As he opened it, he placed his hand on the small of her back. He felt the twitch of her muscles react to his hand. She moved away from him and exited the door.
The two hour ride to the airport was quiet. Vaughn kept quiet, knowing if she wanted to talk, she would. About forty miles into the drive, when he thought she had been sleeping, she spoke very quietly. "You said Will was OK. I saw him... bloody... in the tub... like Danny."
"You saved him."
"I was fighting Francine when I found him. I couldn't even tell if he was breathing."
"The three gun shots saved him. The neighbor called the cops. CIA heard the order to investigate at your house. I was called when they couldn't reach you... When I got to your house, paramedics had already taken him from the tub. He was at the hospital soon after. They had to give him a lot of blood. But he was released a few days after. He is OK now."
She was quiet then, which left Vaughn dreading her next question. It came about ten minutes later. "You found Francine? The real Francine... not the double."
Vaughn would have closed his eyes, if he had not been driving. "Yes. We had a team do a routine sweep through the apartment and her restaurant. We found her at the restaurant. She had a single bullet to her forehead. The double put her in the freezer."
Sydney gasped and started sobbing when Vaughn gave her the information on her friend's death. His hand instinctively moved across the seat. He reached to caress her shoulder. As it touched her, Sydney rebuked him. She pushed his hand away... "Don't touch me."
The rest of the drive to the airport was in silence.
'I know she has been through a lot, in a short amount of time. I guess I wrote off her withdrawal to the news I had delivered. I knew she moved away from my touch because of my betrayal. But as we walked through the airport, I noticed random brushes from other men elicited a very similar response. What else did I know...? The scar... the one she pointed out, given to her by the Calfo double. It had been stitched, that means that either she stitched it or someone else had contact with her, without her knowledge, or without her memory.' Vaughn kept these observations in the back of his mind. He knew this would be valuable information for his report. He also knew he had to get her talking eventually. There was the LA situation to review prior to the end of the flight. They had not told him that he could not discuss this information. She deserved to know that she would be considered 'rogue' until she was able to remember something, anything about the last two years. You don't just disappear off the CIA radar and then get welcomed back with open arms and no explanation. That, coupled with the FBI distrust of her could really seal her fate.
Nonetheless, Vaughn felt there would be more than enough time on the plane for her to get comfortable with him, to start talking to him again.
It took her about an hour into the flight. She had eaten her meal, which Vaughn felt was a good sign, that she no longer felt trapped. She had asked for bottled water and had received and drank one and a half bottles already. She finally turned from the window to look at Vaughn. Her voice, although kept quiet, seemed clear and light. "So... since you're not CIA any longer, what do you do for a living?"
Vaughn smiled. He didn't mind this line of questioning. "I teach investigative sciences at a college in Phoenix."
"Wow... a professor... that's what I wanted to do."
"You still could." She gave him her 'yeah right' look. Vaughn decided not to comment on the look, most colleges would probably not want to hire a CIA agent who has been dead for two years and is now a suspected rogue agent.
"Phoenix is nice, how long have you been there?"
"Since shortly after you... uh..."
"Died?" Sydney finished the answer for him.
Vaughn closed his eyes, "Yes. About two weeks after."
"You got an offer for a teaching position, accepted it and left CIA in two weeks?"
She actually turned and looked at him. This was the Sydney he knew... (loved), bright, energetic and always with an opinion.
"No, actually I had an offer prior to that, but had decided to pass on it. My work with you was too important."
"You didn't tell me you had an offer..."
"I decided to call the guy up after... well... to see if the position was filled. It wasn't and after Kendall pissed me off, it was easy to leave."
"Now, I can see that, it wouldn't take two hours for Kendall to piss me off."
Vaughn smiled, not just at the truth of the last statement, but at the easy banter between them. Vaughn saw that she put her head back and closed her eyes... maybe she would get some sleep now. He leaned back as well, to relax.
Without opening her eyes, she asked the next question, quietly and without emotion. "What's her name?"
Vaughn's heart dropped, he hadn't wanted to go there and thought Sydney would feel the same. He feigned innocence, "Who?"
Sydney snapped her eyes open. The irate blackness was back, "Who do you think, Vaughn. The woman you married, the one you sleep with now and every night for the rest of your life..."
"Sydney, I don't think..."
"You don't think what Vaughn? That I deserve to know anything about her? She stole you away from me."
"Sydney." He looked pleadingly at her.
"No! Stop trying to calm me down. I do deserve to know, who she is... When did you start seeing her?" Vaughn looked at Sydney. "Well?"
"I've known her for a year and 10 months and we were married six months ago."
Vaughn's reply was quiet. He thought of lying about the time frame, but this was Sydney and she could tell when he lied.
"I was gone two months?"
"Not gone Sydney... DEAD!"
"Well, I guess I should thank you then for mourning me for a whole two months."
"Sydney, you don't understand..."
"Then explain it Vaughn. Explain how she was there... how beautiful and enticing. Explain to me that you had no choice. Explain to me Vaughn. Maybe you were never in love with me. You were just passing time until you found her... the love of your life..."
Sydney suddenly stopped her rant. She looked at him, "I'm sorry, I can't sit here." Sydney rose from her seat and walked toward the back of the plane. Vaughn leaned back and closed his eyes to the torrent of tears threatening to fall.
She was right. Meelon had stole him away... away from his mourning, from his memories. Meelon was beautiful and enticing. But Sydney was wrong about him not loving her. 'Sydney, I have loved you from the first moment I saw you. I love your confidence and brilliance... I still love...'
"Excuse me sir?" Vaughn opened his eyes to the Flight Attendant. "Sir, you should tell your wife to use the facilities up front, here. The restroom back there is mostly used by our coach passengers and..."
"Miss, I don't believe she went back there to use the facilities."
"I don't understand."
"We had a bit of a falling out and if my guess is right she went to find a seat in... um... how many rows on this plane?"
"There are 47."
"Then you will probably find her in row 47, as far as possible away from me without sitting on the tail fin."
"She can't do that."
"Can't sit on the tail fin? That was a sarcastic remark."
"No, she can change seats mid-flight."
"I think she just did."
"No... It's against FAA regulations... and... She has a first class ticket..."
"Miss, you can go talk to her but I dare say you will have a hard time convincing her to return to this seat... next to me."
Sydney walked to the back of the plane. Tears in her eyes, she worked her way back to row 47, one passenger in the aisle seat, and a seat empty beside him. "Excuse me sir, is anyone sitting there?"
"Uh... no... You want to sit in the window seat in the far back of the plane?"
"If you had my week, you would understand how... um... comforting it is to feel the buzz of the engine as it drowns out all noise and feeling."
"Wow, and I thought I had a bad week. I'm Robert..."
"Hi Robert... I'm..." 'What was the name on the passport? Can't remember... oh well...' "I'm Amy." 'I always thought Amy sounded sweet. Oh no... He's talking...' "Look Robert. I really had a bad week; I just want to lie back for a bit, you know... a cat nap?"
"OK... uh... Amy."
Sydney closed her eyes. A bad week? It didn't start out bad. Well, yeah... they missed Sloan and her mother gave her another cryptic message... but Vaughn told her about Santa Barbara... right before all hell broke loose.
"Ms. Ames? Ms. Ames." Sydney was poked out of her thoughts by Robert. She looked up and he pointed to the Flight Attendant. "Ms. Ames?"
"Oh... is that me? I mean, yes?"
"Ms. Ames... you can't sit here."
"What do you mean?"
"You have a seat up front... you can't sit here."
"I came back here to sit with my good friend... Robert."
"Ma'am, I understand why you came back here, but the FAA rules say that you can't change seats."
"Why?" Sydney got a blank stare from the Flight Attendant. "Why can't I change seats? Why would you put Robert here all by himself for an eighteen hour flight?"
"Ms. Ames, you need to return to your assigned seat... because... well, if we crash..."
Sydney giggles at this line of reasoning. "If we crash, FAA is not going to know who I am even if I'm in my assigned seat. So you can just go tell him that I will see him at the end of this flight!"
The flight attendant, not quite sure how to take that last statement, straightened up. "Well I will just have to inform my manager and flight security about this."
"Yeah lady, you do that. I'll tell them the same thing I told you..."
Robert gives her a look. "Amy Ames?"
"Yeah, well... parents are cruel sometimes." That was an understatement in her case.
"So you had a fight with some... guy... up there?"
"Yeah... my boss... I guess."
"You guess?"
"Yeah... when I get back to LA, I may be fired." 'Or handed over to the firing squad, not much difference in my line of work.' "He thinks I took too much time to do my last job. He had to come to China to bring me home."
"I understand. I've been in China for three weeks. I sell computers and do training... My boss wants me to leave Monday again for Italy. I told him he can't expect an employee to take trip after trip and keep any semblance of a home life..."
Robert kept talking. Sydney leaned back again, listening to Robert, to the engines. 'How could I think anything would work with Vaughn? Like Robert here, I'm never home...'
Sydney fell into a deep sleep and there was no further interruption.
Robert watched the beautiful girl next to him. She had been asleep for the full flight, minus the hour or so prior to her changing her seat. They were on the final descent to the LAX airport and she started to stir. She was dreaming and had been for about the last half hour.
"No, you can't make me do that... No... NO!" Sydney sat straight up, only the belt held her down. She was instantly confused and tried to lash out. Robert grabbed for her arms and held her.
"Amy, wake up Amy... you were having a bad dream. Amy!"
"Where... what...?"
"Amy, you have been asleep the whole flight. Calm down, everything is OK, we're landing."
Sydney looked around and remembered where she was. "How long have I been gone?"
Robert looked at her confused. "You have been asleep, not gone. You were here the whole time. Do you remember coming back here?"
Sydney sat back. "Yeah, had a fight with Vaughn and..."
"Vaughn, that's your boss? While you were sleeping a man came back here a couple of times to make sure you were alright."
"Yeah, sandy blond hair, nice build?"
"Yep, that's him. Seemed concerned."
"Yeah, now he's concerned." Sydney leaned back and wiped her face with her hands. Robert handed her a packaged wipe that the flight attendants had handed out and she cleaned her face with it.
By the time she was awake and presentable, the plane had landed and passengers had started filing out. Robert stood. "You coming?"
"No, I am going to wait until the plane empties out. Not really looking forward to leaving."
"Well, good bye then. Good Luck."
Robert followed the crowd to the front of the plane to disembark. As he passed the first class section he noticed Vaughn and stopped. "She had a bad dream just before the plane landed. She's pretty strong; I wouldn't get on her bad side if I were you."
Vaughn smiled 'I'm already on her bad side.' He walked to the rear of the plane. He saw her sitting in the window seat she had appropriated and he sat next to her. "Have a good nap?"
"Not good enough. Seems I had a bad dream at the end. I almost whacked poor Robert before I knew what was going on." There was silence between them. "Who's out there, Vaughn?"
"Probably your father, probably Kendall."
"...and his doom squad?"
"Look Sydney, we could have gone over this if you had stayed in your seat."
"Don't get mad at me. I wasn't the one..." She looked at Vaughn. "OK, well I guess I was the one who stirred the pot, but... but...?" Vaughn saw the tears in her eyes begin to form. She leaned back and closed her eyes.
"They will want to take custody of you. Hopefully they are not too overt about it. Your father will help..." Vaughn stands and motions for Sydney to walk in front of him. I will be behind you all the way Sydney.
Sydney touches her ear and quietly states, "My guardian angel, back again."
Vaughn is unsure whether or not it was spoken to him or not so he did not comment. But he did hear and the pain in his heart doubled.