* * *
In one universe, she will have waited for him, knowing that her guardian angel would never leave her.

In another she's happily married, a child on the way.

* * *

a)ii)1) Mistakes

"Vaughn? Is that you?"

Her voice is shocked – understandably so, he thinks, torn between bitterness and amusement.

It is, after all, the first time he's spoken to her in almost four years.

"Yeah." He clears his voice, only now realizing how nervous he had been about making this phone call.

"Syd….I know I screwed up. I know that you'd be perfectly right to say that you never wanted to see me again. All I want is to go to dinner with you."

There's a kind of stunned silence on the other end of the line as she considers his words.

"Vaughn? What about your wife?"

"We're…….we're not together anymore."

"Oh."

She's never been that great at lying to him, he knows, and that one small syllable that would mean so little to anyone else betrays so much to him.

Only Sydney, he reflects nervously, had ever been able to pack so many conflicting emotions into such a small word. There is hope in her voice, but anxiety as well, and the knowledge that all this man left her with the last time around was pain, but above all there is the need for completeness that he feels as well.

"I just want to know if you'd like to have dinner with me sometime. Just to catch up or something."

He knows he doesn't want to rush her.

He knows that if she had done to him what he had done to her, she would probably never want to see him again, let alone have dinner with him [and more, maybe?]

He knows that he's given her a thousand reasons to hang up the phone right now, but he clings only to the hope that what they had together meant more than the anguish that he's caused her in the last four years.

And it does.

"Sure. When, and where, Vaughn?" [because she needs to be completed just as much as he does, after all]

And if a heart could break from happiness, then Michael Vaughn's would have been in a million shards on the floor at that moment.

* * *

So they have dinner. It's not Italian [because the idea of Trattoria di Nardi still lingers too-fresh in both their minds], not French [because the last time they ate French food together they had to fight their way out of the restaurant] and it's not Mexican [because the idea of Santa Barbara still makes both their hearts hurt].

It's only a small restaurant, one that Vaughn thinks looks a little bit like Francie's, but he doesn't say so, because some wounds are still too close to the surface.

It's awkward, right at the start, just like their first meal together.

They share a bottle of wine just like they did then, and begin to talk about all the things that they never got the chance to learn about one another. By silent agreement, they don't talk about Lauren, or Vaughn's marriage, or the absence of a ring on his finger.

They enjoy themselves, and at the end of the night they find themselves outside Sydney's house, a small place near Vaughn's old apartment, the one he had before he got married.

"Do you- do you want to come in?" He can tell that she knows where they'll probably end up if he comes in, but the need he feels for her is echoed in her words. [It's been nearly four years since she's seen him, nearly six years since she's kissed him, woken up in his arms.]

"Sure," he replies, trying to keep the raw desire for her out of his voice. [If possible, he thinks, she's even more beautiful than the last time he saw her.]

And so they go inside.

Come to me now

And lay your hands over me

* * *

It's not a perfect start, but it's a start, and nothing in their lives has ever been perfect, anyway.

He wakes up the next morning with the most beautiful thing he's ever seen in his arms, and he knows that he was an idiot to ever let her go, an idiot to ever think that he could ever find this feeling of completeness with anyone else.

[No one heals me like you]

He's wasted a lot of time, he knows, with false starts and foolish words, but he knows that really, it doesn't matter. Not that much, anyway. Because he knows that he will never, ever, let her go again.

[Never again

Would I turn away from you]

He watches her for a little while longer, until she opens her eyes sleepily and looks up at him.

"What are you thinking about, Mr. Vaughn?" she asks him coquettishly, and his only reply is, "The biggest mistake of my life."

She tenses up in his arms, and in a tiny voice asks him, "Which would be?"

"Letting you ever get up out of this bed without telling you this."

He drops his head to her ear, and whispers three words to her.

He watches a smile spread across her face, the one that he knows is only for him, and twists herself around in his arms so that she can say the same to him.

[I love you.]

* * *

And I shall believe

I shall believe

And I shall believe

All lyrics from "I Shall Believe" by Sheryl Crow.

Reviews much appreciated!

Thanks,

Em