Title: CHAT
Chapter: 14 Part 2 (2/3)
title: Screaming in My Mind
Dedications:

FF.et:


Speedy: hey Stanford thanks for always being so supportive and encouraging... even offering to beta... lol I love your reviews, and you are definitely my MV-whimpering partner so who else would be better to dedicate chapters too?
kittyfantastico: review-queen~ thanks for making sure i had your feedback even when your computer was being spastic
AA-Alias-Addict: that was a GREAT review~ I couldn't stop laughing and my smile must have been a mile wide~


SD-1:


Kat: for being willing to help me figure out what I wanted to do with the chapter and also for teaching me why it's worth it to actually think things things through before writing~
Screech: lol, how are you so happy all the time? And it rubs off i swear, you are CA-RAY-ZEE and i love it~ here's to you.
BlueMoon: Other than having an avatar that I would dedicate a chapter for anyway... you leave the best reviews ever! They make me smile, they make me laugh... if there was an award for them, you would probably get it thanks for being encouraging when i was being a retard.[/b]
JoJo: because you rock my world, hun lol… I'm still so sorry that I forgot you in the PM rush~ you and Shammi are both angels~ you leave the greatest reviews, always make me smile… and that's way more than reason enough for a dedication

Screaming in My Mind

Final A/N: To those of you who were still confused and asked me: Chapters 13, 14, 15, 16 (and the last part of Chapter 12) were/will not be dreams. The things that have happened in this chapter are a continuation of a flashback that Sydney had in the end of Chapter 12.

This flashback tells the story of what Vaughn did to make Sydney so angry/hurt~

Without further ado:



He had to remind himself to slow his breathing, to steady his pumping heart.

It had been 33 days of hell waiting for word… waiting for any kind of news at all. 14 days of his own interrogation, and then the sudden freedom which, to him, seemed to be more of a prison than what he had been set free from.

47 days of wondering- pain and pressure increased in intensity even more with the memory of her words. "I'm sorry. I love you... and I'm sorry."

At that moment, he had felt all the torture crystallize and melt away; there was no pain, only a feeling so ambiguous to describe as her heard her rattling whisper over the static of the microphones.

The statement had made his captor laugh, had made him crack a disgusting grin and had felt it necessary to bend over and whisper into Vaughn's ear:

"So there is more to the story than I thought... How very interesting."

The words physically sunk in; he had felt his jaw clenching in anger, his muscles straining against the leather straps... but mentally... his eyes and his mind and his heart were trained on Sydney's face, the battered look in her eyes, the quiver of her lips... his ears memorizing the anguish in her tone.

She loved him.

And now the situation was different.

Then there was pain. And darkness.

And he had woken up in Cartenega, Spain 14 hours later.

Walked to the phone booth lying yards away on the dusty road.

"Hello?"

"This is Agent 381J, Operation Stained Glass- Connection 84312."

"Hold, please."

A pause.

A wrinkle of static.

A familiar voice.

"Where are you?"

"Spain. Cartenega... I don't know how I got here; I woke up in the street. I don't know why they released me. Where's Sydney?"

"We don't know. We'll plan a retrieval within the next 24 hours- go to the safe-house in Qu-"

"Agent Kendall... I want 3 days."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm in Spain, I was recently in the same building as Sydney. So unless our captors have unlimited funds, connections, or an airplane... she might be in the vicinity. I want three days."

He paused and added one last entreaty. "Please."

Pause.

"Take them."


Three useless, wasted days...


But now- now there was hope. He clutched the disk close to his body as he drove, a wild urgency lighting his eyes.

Marshall was already at his desk when Vaughn ran through the door. "Where are we?"

He looked up. "Oh-hey Michael - I mean Agent Vaughn - right... Sydney... um, well I'm not sure yet but I will be able to at least give you a cell block within a couple of minutes."

Vaughn nodded. "Can you explain to me what you're doing?"

"Just...a...minute..." said Marshall as he furiously typed a few final commands.

He turned around in his swivel-chair and nodded. "Right. So. From your reports, you said that a part of your torture was watching Syd being tortured- er- Agent Bristow, I mean. This is unusual... because this captor believes in the torture of seeing what you can't have as opposed to the torture of total isolation, we assumed-"

Vaughn nodded impatiently. "Right- we assumed that there were cameras placed in my home. There was one. What's the connection?"

"Well, when Syd called you, she had to have been watching the video feed at the same time; there's no other way she could have been convinced that it was really you on the phone and that you were really fine. Therefore, because the two different systems were connected by the same system, the phone call you recorded should have, encoded within it's recording, a recording of the wavelengths of both the camera and the cell phone simultaneously."

Vaughn furrowed his brow, trying to make the connection. "And...? Can you elaborate?"

Marshall paused, lifting his head and finger in sudden inspiration before dropping both again. "Yes... Yeah... Well, there is a slight pause after that the speaker speaks in which the listener can't hear the speaker's words. Now, granted that technology has become so advanced that this difference is not able to be heard with the naked ear... but once one has a recording of the data, one can look directly at the wavelengths and the amount of discrepancy will tell us basically how far away she is… from your apartment- in cell-phone blocks of course-"

A small beep from his computer stole away his attention and Marshall turned wildly back to the desk, fingers tapping furiously at the keys until a moving graph came onto the screen.

He motioned for Vaughn to come closer with a distracted wave of his hand. Vaughn crouched next to him, looking intently at the screen.

Another wavelength came up right below the first, each moving identically to the other, bumping where one bumped, leveling and dropping as other did.

Marshall clicked at his mouse, moving one graph directly on top of the other.

There was absolutely no difference.

"Marshall, what does it mean I-"

He was cut off from Marshall's sudden ejection from his seat and his words stopped in his throat in surprise as he ran across the room to another computer, bringing up a map of the cell-phone blocks of the city.

Running back to the computer, he sent the data hurriedly before running back to the computer across the room.

Vaughn followed.

Green and yellow lines ran across the screen as they scanned, finally settling on a ten-block radius only three miles away from the CIA headquarters.

"Oh my God."

"Wha-" Marshall looked up, his eyes getting larger as he saw the screen. "Oh my God."

Vaughn's mind was racing. Oh my God. She's here. She's right HERE under my nose... The F*CKS!!! Breathing noticeably heavier, he raced down the corridor, throwing open the door to Kendall's office.

"Agent Vaughn, what is the meaning of this?"

"The meaning of this? The meaning of this is that Sydney- Agent Bristow- has made contact and using Marshall's wavelength program, we've found that she's 3 miles away... Or at least the cell phone is." He swore. Three wasted useless days in Spain. In SPAIN for God's sakes. He laughed in disgust. "Those f*cks shipped me to SPAIN because they knew I would search for her there."

Agent Kendall hadn't moved. "Go."

"Go?"

"Go. I'm giving you leave. Find her, take what you need."

Wonder filled Vaughn and he nodded as he turned to leave.

"Agent Vaughn?"

"Yes?"

"Next time, please leave that kind of language in your own mind."

Vaughn nodded again, already twitching from how close this was.



He strode out of CIA headquarters, a new look of determination flashing in his eyes as he strode - nearly ran- to his car.

He had found her.

Syd... I found you. Stay there. Please. I love you too... more than I ever thought I could, more than I ever thought I would, more than I ever could have believed. So please.

Stay.

Wait.


For me.














tbc....

more?? (hehe... The dreaded question I know... But it's tradition)