A/N: Thank you for reviews!! Please keep reviewing. If this story sticks to my plan (which I cannot guarantee) there is going to be lots of angst but hopefully everything will turn out alright in the end or maybe it won't.

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Chapter 6

I woke up with a start, sitting up in bed, my heart pounding in my chest, breathing heavily, taking in each breath like it was my last. I turned to notice Vaughn, sleeping soundly next to me. I don't want to wake him up.

Was it just a dream? Or was it something I had experienced while I was missing? How do you know when something like this is real?

After deliberating a moment, I decide to wake him up, if I tell him in the morning he'll ask me why I didn't wake him up to begin with. I shake him slightly, "Vaughn?"

He slowly opens his eyes, rubbing them, "Syd? Is something," he yawns, "wrong?"

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I see the look on her face, one of confusion and fear. I immediately sit up and rest my hand on her cheek. I am wide awake now.

"Sydney, what's wrong?" I say, my voice full of concern. I can feel she is quite warm, maybe she is coming down with something.

"I.... I had a dream," she stutters, "Sloane was there, I was.... in some medical lab..." I pulled her into my arms as she began to cry.

That man, he has a lot to answer for, he has ruined her life. If he had something to do with her disappearance, which I suspect that he has, I swear to God I am going to find him, and...... my thoughts are interrupted.

"Vaughn? What should we do?" She says pulling out of my embrace to look at me. "Should we ring the CIA now?" A questioning look on her face, as she wipes away her tears.

"I think we should wait until morning." It could be just a dream, right?

"I suppose it could be just a dream..." She was cut off by the phone in the room ringing.

I lean over to the bedside table and pick up the phone. Who would be ringing at this time in a morning?

"Hello?"

The voice hesitated for a moment. "Mike? What are you doing... never mind. Where's Sydney?" It was Eric.

"A hello would be nice. Why?" I am slightly annoyed at his tone of voice.

"We need Sydney to come back to LA, Sloane has resurfaced. And..... you better come too, Mike."

Eric hung up the phone. As I put the phone down, Syd noticed the expression on my face.

"Who was that? What is it?" She questioned.

"We have got to go back to LA, it was Eric he said that Sloane has resurfaced."

"What?" She gasped covering her mouth with her hand. Tears begin to flow down her cheeks, again. I put my arm around her. Sloane had disappeared at the same time Sydney had gone missing, so it was not a stretch of the imagination to assume Sloane had taken Sydney.

"He.. he.. my dream can't have been a coincidence it's too much... he's ruined my life."

We got up off the bed, got dressed and began to pack our stuff up. I went back to my room to pack up my belongings. I finished packing and noticed that my wedding ring was still on the bedside table, I slipped it into the side pocket of my holdall. I am with Sydney now.

I took my belongings and put them in my car. I am thankful Sydney did not drive here and that she had taken the train because she is in no fit state to drive back to LA.

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I hate him, he has ruined my life and now he is back to ruin it even more. I know Sloane is involved in my disappearance, I have this gut feeling. He has destroyed my life; had Danny killed, Francie killed, Will almost did not survive and nearly destroyed my relationship with Vaughn. I wouldn't be surprised if he has come back to destroy every piece of happiness I still have.

As I pack my toiletry bag away and my other stuff back into my overnight bag, I notice the pack of photographs I had brought with me. Most of the photos are of me and Vaughn. My crying had subsided but it comes back suddenly with full force, Vaughn is one of my last shreds of happiness left. Sloane may try and use him to get me, may hurt him, may kill him.

I collapse to the floor sobbing uncontrollably. Just then Vaughn walked back into the room. He came over to me, and took me in his arms.

"Sydney, shhhh," he says stroking my hair, trying to console me. He instinctively knew what was wrong, that I was afraid Sloane was going to...

"I am not going to let him hurt you." But he'll hurt you.

Just then I knew what I had to do. I had to make sure that Vaughn was no where near me, that I had to make Sloane believe that I still hadn't got feelings for him, so that he wouldn't hurt him. The question was how was I going to tell Vaughn, that I didn't want to see him anymore and would my heart let me betray my true feelings for him?

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She stopped crying after about five minutes, we then gathered up her things and got in the car and began driving back. She was silent for most of the trip back to Los Angeles. We headed straight for the Joint Task Force Centre. We were greeted by Weiss, Jack and Kendall. I had not been in here since the debriefing after arriving back from Hong Kong and it had been a long time before that.

"Where have you been Agent Bristow?" Kendall asked. "And what are you doing here, Mister Vaughn?"

I could see that Sydney was about to explode at Kendall but I gently grabbed her arm to stop her, when Weiss interrupted for us.

"Sir, I thought that Mister Vaughn could help. He has extensive knowledge of Agent Bristow's case and I thought...." Kendall cut him off.

"He is not part of this agency any longer..." Jack interrupted Kendall.

"I agree Agent Weiss, he could be a useful asset."

"Jack," Kendall shouted, causing most of the operations centre personnel to turn to look at them, "you cannot be serious about this. I would like a word with you Jack." Kendall marched into the briefing room with Jack.

"Sorry about that. So...." Weiss said. He indicated he wanted to talk to me. So I guided Sydney to the nearest chair, I put my hand on her cheek, slowly stroking with my thumb.

"You going to be alright while I talk to Eric?" She responded by nodding.

I walked over to where Weiss was standing on the opposite set of desks. I put my hands in my jeans pockets waiting for him to say something. He kept looking back and forth between me and Sydney.

"Ok," he finally said, "what happened? Why where you..." I cut him off.

"I left her. I told her our marriage was a mistake."

Weiss raised his eyebrows, "Really, you left that evil-psychopath-stalker-girl, good on ya."

I rolled my eyes, "She wasn't that bad."

"Oh come on, why the hell did she the first time she met you, and may I add she hadn't even spoken to you before she followed you all the way home to ask whether you would be at the coffee shop the next day?" That was weird, but.... Weiss continued, "I mean who would not want me, to come to their wedding?"

What? "You said that you didn't want to come because I was and I quote 'throwing my life away'."

"Well, there was that, too. Her constant death glares she gave me after she told me, that I would ruin her dream wedding, for what reason I'm not sure, persuaded me not to go."

Just at that moment, Jack and Kendall emerged from the briefing room. They both walked over to me and Weiss, "Mister Vaughn, you will have temporary access and you can be a useful asset to us for the moment." Kendall announced.

Turning to Sydney sitting down Kendall said, "Agent Bristow, Weiss, Jack, Vaughn we have a meeting." Gesturing towards the briefing room.

Sydney stands up, and we all walk into together. Sydney sits next to me while Weiss and Jack, sit at opposite sides of the table.

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I sit next to Vaughn. I cannot believe he is willing getting back into this life again, he is doing it for me, he is going to get hurt, I need to...

"Sloane has resurfaced," Kendall begins the meeting, "boarding a plane in Hong Kong approximately 12 hours ago, and landing in Taipei, thereafter."

Jack takes over, "Our intel indicates that Sloane has met already with two prominent terrorists groups in Hong Kong and is meeting with another one in Taipei as we speak. We have several leads on the Sloane's hideaway in Hong Kong, one of his new associates seems to be this man."

Jack presses a button on the remote to show a man, who looks to be in his mid-30s on the screens in front of them. "His name is Christopher MacKay. He was spotted with Sloane at Hong Kong International Airport however he stayed in Hong Kong."

I look at the picture of the man who looks vaguely familiar and so does the name. I try to recall whether I had run into him on one of my missions for SD-6 but I don't seem able to put my finger on it.

"Sir," Vaughn interrupts, "Sydney had a dream about, what she believed was being in Sloane's custody."

I explain what happened in my dream, and Kendall orders me to another regression therapy session. Not after ordering myself, Vaughn and Weiss on a mission to find Sloane's hideout in Hong Kong and retrieve any information.

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TBC..........................