A/N: thanks once again to Demon for betaing. she's such a sweet gal
this is one REALLY REALLY short chapter... (but think of it this way… tomorrow… you get a 12 page chapter!)

Sorry about being lazy yesterday… let's just say that studying for finals is draining.

Thank you to:

'sally': hehe… a lot of hell from higher-ups apparently.. I was just waiting for Vaughn to punch Sloane ::pouts:: I wish he did.

valley-girl2: yay! Home. A great place to be. Lucky you. I still have one more week before break! Lots and lots of stuff to do. Hehe. Seriously, I just need a B+ on my calc final and I'll be happy. Hehe… glad you liked the "anonymous" until he spoke. The "Sydney's and Vaughn's house" will always be their house. :) LOL. When I feel the need eh? Hmm… that would be when I get around to the epilogue… ::whistle:: I'll work on that today… otherwise you guys will be waiting weeks and weeks and weeks.

Queen Gwenyvere: Glad you like!

total vaughn lover: hehe… I've been catching up on your fics… especially the very long one. I spent all of Thursday night and yesterday reading it! Hehe. Nice and long ;) now… I just need to review it!

Brynne: lol. I knew you'd like the Sark part. Well… in all probability, they can be dead if I write them dead… but… you'll see next chapter. And then the epilogue should (hopefully) cement it all. Err… the Vaughn part might actually be the first, I can't seem to remember. LOL. The chapters are already written. I just need to edit the page so that I can write the responses and then change it to an HTML format so that ff.net will format it correctly. That's what actually makes me late for class :) Oh well, Euro History can wait. This is so much more fun!


Chapter 14

September 28, 2005
Los Angeles, California
Joint Task Force building
12:20 PM

She had been staring off into space, completely absorbed in thought. Thinking about Sark's, or rather, Aiden's visit more than a month ago. No, not only thinking about Aiden's visit, but Vaughn's as well. She didn't understand, couldn't comprehend, and wanted to digress. There was no logic. Nothing seemed to fit. Everything turned into nothing. There was no sense, no analytical description. Why were they haunting her? Why her?

Je veux.

She wanted to scream at them. Tell them to go away. There were dead. She knew that. She saw the facts. She saw Vaughn's body and the DNA electrophoresis test that confirmed his identity. Sydney couldn't believe her eyes—they could be deceived. So she'd made them triple check the DNA match results. And each time, the DNA strands were paired. Always the same place, the same band length. There was no doubt the body was he.

And she'd felt the guilt for the doubt. She saw him dead, only seconds after he was killed. And she had doubted it was the really him. Her heart had turned dead, unbelieving.

Je désire.

Then there were the hauntings. The ones that were sapping her of life, and bringing her closer to where Vaughn lay. And she had acted on that impulse, to take her life. But she'd heard Vaughn's wish. She couldn't do something like that anymore. Every time she put a gun to her head, a knife to the wrist, another cocktail of death, she'd hear his voice. His voice telling her to stop, to live for him. And that would make her put down the gun and put it back into it's holster, lay the knife back on the counter, or drain the potion down the sink.

Je souhaite.

But what did these hauntings mean? There were all Vaughn, and the last one Sark? It didn't make sense. She understood Vaughn coming, he had "unfinished business," but Sark was once again an enigma. Sark? Why Sark? And the message he carried with him… why was it written by Vaughn? They were both dead, enemies in life. But… friends in death? Nothing was making any sense anymore, and in some way, she liked it like that.

She couldn't approach anyone on the subject. They would only throw her in the psych ward and brainwash her. Inform her that they were illusions of her troubled mind.

J'espère.

"Hey, Bristow." The interruption made her jump, her hand bumping the computer mouse, turning the screensaver into the logon menu.

"AD Kendall wants you in the conference room in two minutes."

Sydney returned the messenger's relay with a small nod and an even more imperceptible smile.

~*~*~

September 28, 2005
13,000 ft above sea level
Cargo Plane 24047
3:39 PM PST

The conference had only lasted ten minutes. It was a basic brief rundown of the mission she had to perform in order to stop another Rambaldi artifact from being stolen by Sloane. The back channels had been pressed for time trying to get the mission specs in order. The undercover agent in Sloane's forces had only heard of the mission six hours before it was going to be conducted. The mission Sydney was going to perform had only been looked over once. The entire mission screamed of sloppiness. Something was bound to go wrong. And of course, Kendall just had to make things worse by coming along on this mission.

"Sydney, change of plans," her father called out. "You're going in. Agent Spencer had some problems with her qualifications."

At first, she had only been there as backup. Her father, Weiss, Marshall, Dixon… they had all been worried about her performing the actual stealing. Afraid that she was going to be subconsciously clumsy—an accidental death.

"You're going in with Agent Weiss."

"Weiss?! He barely has any field experience!"

"Hey Bristow! I resent that," Sydney heard from the front of the plane. She couldn't help it. Her face broke into a smile.

"I think you're missing some information. Agent Weiss has become quite… experienced… with his lying ability. He has fooled AD Kendall a number of times. Of course, I believe you had something with his… achievement?" he said, his voice cool and calm.

She blushed, realizing that Weiss' achievement of lying without looking guilty was the result of one too many missed meetings. Of course… she was in a meeting, just not a meeting with Kendall, her father, Will, Dixon, Marshall, or any of the others in the conference room. No, her meeting had been with her angel… and of course, when they were late to so many meetings, Weiss had to play messenger boy.

"Fine. So I am... his what? His friend? His sister—"

"Sydney, you're going to be sent in playing the role of his girlfriend."

She lapsed into silence. Jack staring at her expectantly, waiting for an answer. Weiss watching her from afar, seeing how she'd take the news.

Her face went blank, then she said, "I see. I guess I better go read up on my part then. Excuse me."

Both Jack and Weiss were thinking of a different man who was supposed to be taking the part of the boyfriend, an agent that was much more qualified with field experience. A man that was also qualified in the field of handling Sydney Bristow.

~tbc~