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Epilogue:

Living the Dream

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The world was quiet here, the only sounds that filtered through were those of nature. The earth seemed to breathe, pulsing upward from the depths. The roar of the ocean was calm, a steady pulse in the vein of the planet. Sand shifted slowly, marking the passage of time as footprints faded and were reformed, constantly washing away with the tide.

Sydney closed her eyes momentarily and soaked in the warmth of the sun on her bare flesh. Clouds drifted lazily across the golden orb but they always passed, allowing her a moment of peace. The sand was soft beneath her fingertips as she dug her fingers in, beneath the surface there was a layer of darker soil. The darker sand was filled with shadows, only exposed to sunlight when the wind or water pushed the surface away. Often, Sydney felt like the ocean, her life had always been shfiting and changing beneath the waning moon. Only now, she felt like the shore, constant and peaceful, soft beneath the waves of change her life had brought to her.

Her reverie was broken by squeals of childish delight. With a smile on her face, she opened her eyes and looked down the beach to where her children were playing in the shallow water. Vaughn stood beside them, one hand firmly gripping those of the yonger two. His shirt had been discarded on the sand beside her and in the afternoon light, he was like a god of the sea. Skin gleaming gold, eyes ablaze with the light of love, he always seemed to glow with a faint unearthly light. She could see it sometimes, pouring from his fingertips when he touched her, from his lips when he kissed the cheeks of their beautiful children, from his eyes when he looked at all of them. It was something she had seen ever since the Telling machine had opened her eyes, and three years later she could still feel its power in both of them. That same power of strength and love had been passed onto their children, who Sydney always saw as glowing angels of beauty.

She rose to her feet and approached them slowly, Vaughn was lifting them in his arms as the waves crashed against the shore. The water never reached higher than their small chests but they still screamed with the childish joy that comes from facing their fears. Vaughn laughed as their daughter, Morgan threw her arms around his neck and her eyes fell on Sydney. Sydney smiled at her daughter who was the spitting image of herself at that age, dark hair and eyes with a piercing intelligence. Morgan smiled joyously and stretched her arms toward Sydney.

"Maman!" She called happily, grinning fiercely. Sydney laughed and lifted her skirts, treading into the water. Her son, Aiden looked up at her from his position at his father's side. At the age of four, he was as intelligent as his sister and had already gained a fierce independence. That never stopped him, however, from running to his mother as he did at that moment and wrapping his small arms around her waist.

"Maman," he echoed his twin sister's cry happily and Sydney picked him up, swinging him around in the air. He giggled happily and she kissed him on the cheek as he wrapped his arms around her neck and settled his head on her shoulder. His exertion in the ocean with his sister and father must have tired him out.

Vaughn turned at his daughter's call and looked at Sydney, a warm glow of love emanating from him. She was illuminated by the golden glow of sunlight that reflected off the rippling waves onto her skin. In the white dress, water swirling around her legs, he saw in that moment the headstrong agent he had fallen in love with many years ago. Now she was so much more, she had long been his partner, his friend, his lover. Now she was his wife, the mother of his children, everything he had ever wanted. His smile grew even wider as he stepped closer to her, wrapping an arm around her waist. Gently he kissed her on the cheek and rested his forehead against hers.

Aiden and Morgan took advantage of their close proximity to one another to bow heads together and began giggling softly at some joke that neither Sydney nor Vaughn had heard. Their children were naturally very close, being fraternal twins, they had been inseperable since the day they were born. It seemed often to their parents that they could read one another's thoughts, speak without words. They were highly intuitive to each other's thoughts and emotions and those of their parents, recently Sydney had seen evidence that this same intuition carried over into the way they viewed the world. They were brilliant children, learning rapidly whatever their parents taught them. Vaughn had spoken to them in French since birth and they could speak it as well as English at the age of four.

"Hey there," Vaughn's gentle words interrupted her musings and she smiled gently. "When did you get home?"

"Just now," Sydney replied, kissing him softly. In unspoken agreement, they both turned and moved out of the shallow water. Neither Morgan nor Aiden protested, having exhausted themselves with the power of the ocean. Together, the four of them walked up the length of the beach to their house on the edge.

"How was class?" Vaughn asked, smiling at Morgan as she poked his nose playfully. He poked her nose in return and then rubbed his against her own in an eskimo kiss. Morgan squealed with delight and proceeded to lean over her father to rub her nose against her brothers. Sydney could feel Aiden giggle against her chest and she smiled.

"It was good, some of my students are incredibly bright. There is one girl who reminds me a lot of myself at that age."

Vaughn chuckled softly and shook his head, his eyes moving from his daughter to his wife. "Better check her for any bruising then, make sure she's not involved unwittingly in any terrorist organizations."

Sydney made a face at him which just made him laugh harder and she couldn't help but giggle as well. Aiden and Morgan were already giggling over some private joke and they broke into a full out childish squeals of laughter, attempting to outdo their parents.

Sydney made a face at Aiden which he mimicked perfectly and she swung him around in her arms. "You think that's funny do you, little man?" He nodded enthusiastically and she kissed his dark hair, shaking some of the sand out of it. Sydney set her son down on the porch and knelt down to look him in the eyes. Vaughn did the same with Morgan simultaneously, they anticipated one another's actions as quickly as their children did sometimes. "You go get washed up now and Maman will give you some dinner in a few minutes, okay?"

Aiden nodded enthusiastically, green eyes twinkling and he turned, grabbing his sister's hand. The two of them ran into the house, tiny hands clasped together as they spoke rapidly to one another in French. Sydney smiled as she watched them go, Aiden sounded exactly like his father when he spoke in French, even at such a young age. He would be unwittingly breaking girl's hearts in only a few years, she could tell. His sister and mother were the only women who held his heart at this stage in life.

Vaughn turned to Sydney and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close to him to catch his lips in a breathless kiss. She smiled against his lips and ran her fingers through his damp hair, stroking his neck gently. His eyes were filled with a familiar fire when she pulled away and she smiled wickedly.

"Miss me?" She asked lightly, a teasing tone in her voice. Vaughn groaned softly and shook his head.

"Like you wouldn't believe." Sydney laughed softly at the hunger in his voice and kissed his cheek gently.

"Agent Vaughn, don't tell me you've been thinking dirty thoughts in the presence of your children all day?" She laughed as his eyes darkened and his head drooped in mock shame. Catching his chin as it fell, she lifted his face to hers and kissed him again.

"It's not as if they can read my thoughts," Vaughn frowned suddenly, genuine anxiety in his expression. "Right?"

Sydney giggled and shrugged, "Sometimes I think they can." Her expression turned serious suddenly and her brows knit together in thought. "They're highly intuitive, sometimes I wonder if the Telling did something to them."

Vaughn shook his head, they had discussed this often in the past four years and had never come up with any concrete evidence aside from their own instinct. "If it did," he whispered as he hugged her close to him. "It just made them even more special."

Sydney nodded and the shadows cleared from her eyes, she kissed him again and smiled. Two shadows fell across them and they turned to see their children standing in the doorway, plates in hand, impatiently awaiting dinner.

"Maman!" Morgan held up the plate and frowned, her forehead wrinkling in perfect imitation of Vaughn and Sydney laughed. Her joy was so profound, her love endless whenever she looked upon her children. Her fears for them were ones that all mothers had, she did not have to fear they would be killed by her enemies or that they would be kidnapped and used against her in some way. Sydney Bristow had been many people in her life, she had changed appearances a thousand times, been called by countless names and titles that were never rightfully hers. Out of all these aliases, out of every role she had ever played, the one of mother was by far her favorite.

Grinning down at his children, Vaughn took the plates from them and shook his head. "You're smart enough to find the dishes but not the food?" They just stared up at him with wide eyes, perfectly innocent. Vaughn took the dishes in one hand and his son's hand in the other, Sydney took Morgan's hand. The four of them were all linked together, Aiden and Morgan completing the link with their entwined fingers.

After dinner, Sydney was washing the dishes as Vaughn put the twins down for a nap. They would never sleep longer than an hour until bedtime and though it was a rare hour when Sydney and Vaughn could be alone, they both missed the bright energy of their children at times like this. Vaughn had prepared dinner before Sydney had come home so she took it upon herself to do the dishes, it was a mundane everyday chore that she never tired of. It was calm, it was ordinary and it took far less effort than diffusing a bomb in under thirty seconds. Sydney rarely missed the life of a spy, she had spoken often of leaving before her disappearance and after Vaughn had destroyed the Covenant and they had both destroyed the legacy of Rambaldi, she had craved the normal mundane activities of life. Moments like this were never lost on her, even after three years of being out of the CIA. Vaughn was still working for the CIA, only as an analyst, where he was safe and home as often as possible. He had only agreed to become a field agent in the first place in order to stay close to Sydney, so he could protect her on missions. Without her working for the CIA, he no longer desired to be in the field. Only intense begging from Dixon had persuaded him to stay on at all.

Vaughn knelt now beside his children's bed. At the age of four, they were old enough to have their own beds but when Sydney had purchased separate beds for them, one had always ended up crawling into the other. So they had put the second bed in the attic and the twins shared a bed, as they shared so much else.

Morgan looked up at him, eyes bright in the shadows and Vaughn smiled at her, kissing her forehead gently. Aiden sat beside her, bouncing slightly in excitement. He had been thoroughly exhausted by the day but he refused to show it, he wanted his father to stay with them as long as possible but Vaughn could see his eyelids struggling to droop closed. Aiden looked up at his father, feeling his gaze on him and smiled, bouncing in his seat.

"Story, Papa?" He asked with wide eyes, pleading for just a moment more of his time. Vaughn could not resist, he smoothed his son's hair gently and then folded his arms on the side of the bed, resting his head on them.

"Story?" He asked with mock confusion, forehead wrinkling with thought. "What is that?"

Morgan sat up in excitement, she loved her father's stories, Vaughn hid a grin at her enthusiasm. She looked from Aiden to her father, sleepiness forgotten and bounced slightly. "Story!" She demanded and Vaughn let the laughter break free.

"Okay, okay. Calm down, what story do you want to hear?"

"Maman!" Morgan cried and Aiden nodded his agreement in a motion that was decidedly older than his years.

Vaughn smiled and eased himself onto the foot of the bed where he could see both of them. "You want to hear the story about Maman and me?"

His children nodded, sitting upright, covers clenched in their tiny fists at their chins in anticipation. He eased them down until they were laying still on the bed and then began to speak.

"A long time ago," he began softly. "There was a beautiful princess named Sydney," he was cut off by Aiden's enthusiastic cry.

"Maman!"

Vaughn grinned and nodded, "Yes, Maman. She was very beautiful and smart but she had been tricked by an evil wizard. The evil wizard enslaved her and made her do all of his dirty work."

Morgan wrinkled her nose, "Like laundry?" It was the dirtiest work she could think of and she asked it so innocently that Vaughn felt a pang of sadness. Someday she would discover the truth, that Sydney had never done Sloane's laundry (she probably would have decked him for suggesting it) but she had done things much worse.

"Yes," Vaughn said softly. "Like laundry, and she had to clean his tower which was always very dirty from all of his spells," stained with blood, Vaughn thought, from all of his torture. "Well one day he went too far and he took away something very dear to her."

"What was it?" Aiden asked, his eyes filled with curiosity. Vaughn had told them the story a hundred times, each time changing it slightly as if to keep the children guessing.

Vaughn hesitated, thinking momentarily on Danny, a man he had never known. "He stole a jewel from her, something that was very precious to her because it was all she had left from her life before he had enslaved her. She became very angry and swore revenge, she escaped from the evil wizard and ran to the palace where she met a handsome prince."

"Papa!" Aiden announced happily and Vaughn nodded.

"That's right. She and the princed worked together to bring down the evil wizard and in the process, they fell deeply in love. It was only after they had declared their love for one another that the evil wizard captured the beautiful princess and made the handsome prince think that she had been killed."

Aiden and Morgan did not interrupt this time, beneath the covers their hands were clutched tightly and their eyes were wide. They each held one hand to their mouth in an expression of intense fear that children feel for things that are make-believe.

"Well, the handsome prince was very distressed by the news. He became a shadow of his former self, his life had been stolen away when the princess had died. Only the princess had left clues for the prince, telling him that she was still alive and where to find her. The prince followed these clues, not daring to believe that they could be true only to discover at the end of the road, that his princess was waiting for him." Vaughn grimaced inwardly at the wild distortion of the truth, his storytelling skills were rough tonight.

"So the prince and the princess were reunited and they were very happy. However, the evil wizard was still looking for them so they had to run away. In the process, they encountered many dangers and almost lost each other again. But in the end, they came face to face with the evil wizard and used his own magic against him. The evil wizard was destroyed and your maman and I lived happily ever after." Vaughn smiled as he noticed his children's eyes drooping closed at his last words. Gently he leaned over to kiss them each on the cheek and turn away.

He found Sydney in the doorway, sillhoutted against the light in the hallway. She smiled gently at him and held out her hand which he took eagerly. Casting a look to the sleeping children, she closed the door quietly and led him down the hall.

"I liked your story," she told him with a ripple of amusement lacing through her voice. He blushed faintly and shook his head.

"I've told better," he said to her. She laughed quietly and the two of them went out to sit on the porch together. They sat together on the large chair that hung suspended from the roof, swinging slightly in the breeze. Sydney curled against him, head resting on his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. The sun was lowering in the horizon, the colors of twilight bathing the pale sand with a crimson glow. The bright blue water was a muted purple and red in the distance, waves lapping gently at the shore. If Sydney had been the ocean, Vaughn had always been her shore. Now they were equal, standing together beyond all definition.

The twilight was their favorite moment here, their house had the best view of the ocean that Sydney had ever seen. There was no one around for miles to disturb the quiet peace of the sunset. Sydney and Vaughn had only each other and their children who were resting within the house.

"You know what today is?" Sydney asked quietly, her words murmuring against his chest. He turned his eyes from the horizon to her, watching her quietly. Of course he knew what day it was, he had been hoping she might forget.

"Of course," he whispered. "Four years to the day. Look at how far we've come." He shook his head and swallowed a sudden lump that rose in his throat. "I sat amidst the ashes of our life and thought that I would never have all of this, I thought it would fade into my dreams and now here we are. We've won, Syd."

She smiled, the shadow that hung over her thoughts fading into a golden glow at his words. She nodded, the motion easing her head from his chest to his neck where she kissed the skin on the nape of his neck gently. "Thank you, Vaughn."

His forehead wrinkled in confusion and he shook his head slightly, "For what?"

She shrugged and settled her head against his shoulder, "There is too much to say in words. You have given me everything I ever wanted."

He smiled and shook his head, she had done only the same in return. "I love you," he whispered into the dying light. A soft breeze swept over them, stealing his words and casting them into the impending night. She heard them however, she always did. They sat together in silence for a few minutes, watching the sun sink into the sea. Vaughn spoke again, his words hesitant in the quiet.

"I'm thinking about leaving the CIA," he told her, his eyes were still fixed on the horizon. She looked up at him, the red light gleaming in his eyes and studied him.

"Why now?"

He shrugged and turned his gaze to her, "I have done so much for them, Syd. They've taken so much of my life and I don't want that anymore. I want my life to be here with you and Aiden and Morgan. I've given them everything that I have and I have nothing left to give."

Sydney nodded, she understood how he felt. It was the same decision she had made three years earlier when Dixon had told her that she was welcome to return to the CIA after the twins were born. She had refused, she had given so much of herself to her work and now she only wanted to give to her children and her marriage. "What do you want to do?"

He smiled at her and shrugged slightly, "I was thinking about becoming a French professor. I taught the twins pretty well and I could come work with you again in a much safer environment." Sydney could not help but feel excited about the idea, they would be able to work together where they could show their affection.

"We could bring the kids to the College's daycare center if we needed to. We wouldn't have to be very far from them."

Vaughn shook his head, "Not far at all," he grinned and chuckled softly. "Your parents do a wonderful job babysitting, so does Will and Weiss but I think they would all be a little relieved if we took them to daycare. They'll be in regular school soon anyway and they've got to learn how to interact with other children their age. They will have to learn that other children aren't always as smart as they are. That not all children know how to speak French fluently."

Sydney groaned slightly and shook her head, "Imagine how much they're going to drive their teachers nuts speaking French."

Vaughn laughed at the though and pulled her closer to him, kissing her softly. "They're going to be amazing," he whispered. She could see the same glint in his eye that Aiden had presented earlier and smiled at the similarity.

"They already are," she said softly. She leaned her head against his shoulder and his arms tightened around her. She curled around him, contentedly and closed her eyes. The sun was sinking below the horizon now, she could feel it in the way the warmth of the light shifted on her skin. She could see the shadows lurking behind her closed eyelids but they did not bother her, they were as natural as breathing. They would always be there but her own natural light pushed them aside. Vaughn pressed a kiss into her hair and breathed a sigh of contentment. There were no broken wounds to mar their flesh, no bruises from fighting. The only wounds they carried now were the ones that stained the fabric of their own souls but those wounds had long ago healed over and though not forgotten, they were no longer important. All that mattered now was their life together, the happiness of their children and the love that held them together stronger than any other force on the earth.

Against the horizon, they were bathed in the last colours of twilight. Aglow with golden light that shone from within and crimson light that spun a web around them with its rays. They were cocooned in warmth and happiness, the world around them spun on and life continued.

The most important fact of all was that life not only went on for others, it went on for them. Vaughn's story was true, they were living happily ever after every day but the most important fact in his mind was that they were alive at all. They were together and they were living their lives the way they had always dreamed.

He could not think of a better way to end their long story than that.

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Fin.

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"Come to me now,

lay your hands over me,

even if it's a lie

say it will be alright

and I Shall Believe."

-Sheryl Crow

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