I am sooooooo sorry. It took me forever to write this chapter. But hopefully it was worth the wait.
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"Ms. Waters?" Cara, a shy student timidly asked.
"Yes Cara?" Mary continued to type grades into her grade book, as she talked with her student.
"I lost my last pencil last class. Do you have one I can borrow?"
"I don't think I have a pencil. I have a pen. It's on my desk. You can go get a pen off of my desk." Cara thanked Mary, and went over to her desk.
Moments before the bell ended, Mary went around collecting the papers on the French romantic writers. "Cara? Why is this in red?"
"Only pen on your desk. I did look, but this was the only one." Cara held up an elegant green pen, with a gold engraving. Mary politely took the pen from Cara, and pocketed it. She breathed a sigh of relief that Cara did not ask about the engravings. That pen wasn't supposed to leave her apartment. But somehow Sydney's pen mistakenly got put into her bag that was school bound. "Is that ok?"
"I'll make an exception this time. I must have put all my other pens in the drawer last night."
"Thank you." The bell rang, and Sydney yelled out to her students as they filed out the door about the test the next day. "By the way Ms. Waters. This may not be in my place, but out of curiosity, who is V and S? It's on your pen."
"This pen, I, I, I have no idea. I found this pen a number of years ago. Needed the red pen. Never did find out who the real owner was."
"Oh ok." Cara smiled, satisfied with her answer. After all, people found pens all the time, and kept them. It wasn't like a wallet. Mary let out a sigh of relief. She carefully turned the lid of the pen around twice, and the world went silent. Satisfied that it still worked, she quickly turned off the silencer. High school teachers don't have silencers, spies do. Mary doesn't have a silencer, Sydney does.
Mary juggled her new keys, with a box, as she attempted, with one hand, to open her new apartment. She unlocked it, and kicked the door open. She smiled at her much larger and currently empty apartment. She put the box on the bare floor, and went outside to get the rest of her boxes. "Well?" Kelsey said, as she leaned against Mary's packed car.
"It is so nice and big." She said. "Now help me get the rest of the stuff into the apartment."
"This is a nicer building." Kelsey commented.
"Yeah." Mary and Kelsey spent most of the afternoon bringing boxes, and furniture into the apartment. After take-out Chinese, the two sat down on the couch, and looked out the window.
"I should probably grade some more tonight before I go to work."
"I disagree." Kelsey announced. "I think you and I should hit the town, instead of just hanging around your no longer stuffy apartment."
"You still want to go clubbing or something, after moving boxes all afternoon?"
"Yeah." Kelsey turned to her friend. "Come on. What a way to end a stressful day?"
"By grading my student's wonderful essays on French Romantic writers."
"You're joking; please tell me you're joking."
"Don't worry I was. You don't want to go clubbing with me. Go without me. I know that Gretchen isn't doing anything tonight."
"Are you trying to get rid of me?"
"Maybe?"
"Why would you want to get rid of me?"
"Because…"
"Oh my God! Are you and Travis going to test out your new bedroom?"
"He said he might stop by. But he wasn't sure. He mentioned something about a meeting with a publisher tomorrow morning."
"So you are kicking me out?"
"Would you leave if I said no?"
"Probably not."
"Would you leave if I said yes?"
"Naw."
"When would you leave?"
"About the time you and Travis are getting heavy in the bedroom." Mary threw back her head and laughed.
"Who said anything about the bedroom?" The two just began to laugh like mad, when the door flew open.
"Sydney! They got Derevko!" Mary and Kelsey turned to see who had just burst through the door. A very embarrassed Vaughn stood there, quickly changing into Travis. Both his and Mary's faces were bright red.
"Hi Travis." Kelsey said.
"Kelsey!" Travis said very surprised. "Hey Mary."
"Hello Travis."
"Who are Sydney and Derevko?" Kelsey asked.
Mary and Travis blushed like roses. Mary's eyes connected with Travis's and he got the message. They each took a deep breath before becoming Sydney and Vaughn. Sydney stood up from her place on the couch and walked over to a box. She rooted through it, before she found what she was looking for. A pen. "It's my last one." She said, before turning the top counter clockwise.
"You know, pens run relatively cheep." Kelsey said.
"This pen is different."
"I can have Marshall hook you up with some more." Vaughn replied.
"I have a feeling that I will be needing more now."
"How is that pen any different?"
"It's a bug killer."
"That thing kills cockroaches?"
"Not those kinds of bugs. Vaughn, come sit downs sweetie." Sydney said, scoot ting down. "The kind you only see in movies, the kind where people listen in to your conversations. Only this is real."
"This room is bugged? Who the heck is Vaughn?"
"I don't think so, but it's a standard precaution."
"This room might be bugged? Why would anybody bug you? And Travis is really someone named Vaughn?"
"Kelsey, before you ask anymore questions, let me tell you the complete story. You may not believe me. I barely believe me."
"Ok."
"For starters, my name is not Mary Waters. I am really Sydney Bristow, a member of the CIA. And Travis here, he's not really Travis Armstrong, but rather Michael Vaughn, also CIA."
"CIA?"
"Yes. I was recruted for a rogue CIA agency, SD-6, that was posing as the CIA, but wasn't CIA in college. I didn't know that SD-6 wasn't CIA. If that makes any sense."
"Actually it does."
"Well, SD-6 had this policy that we couldn't tell anyone about our jobs. But it is hard to keep that kind of secret from your fiancé. I told Danny, who had just become my fiancé, and SD-6 killed him. And that's when I learned the truth. I became a double agent, working for the CIA."
"A double agent. This story seems something out of the movies."
"Oh it gets better. Vaughn here was my go between the CIA and SD-6. We met in secret and he would give me little missions that would sabotage SD-6. Vaughn and I became good friends, and then a little more."
"We started to date in secret. It wasn't safe for us to be seen in public." Vaughn said, adding his two cents into the story.
"We got careless, and SD-6 discovered that I was their mole. For my protection, I entered the Witness Protection Program, where here I am today. Vaughn stuck around for a year before he was forced to enter."
"That day at the bookshop was a pure coincidence. I had no idea what had happened to Syd. I mean I know she entered the program, but Kendall and her father, the two that knew where she was wouldn't tell me."
"Give me a second to digest that." Sydney and Vaughn looked at Kelsey smiling. "Ok. Who is Derevko?"
"My mother."
"My father's killer."
Kelsey burst out laughing. "You're kidding me."
"Sadly, no. That is a whole different story. Irina Derevko was a KGB agent that was sent to seduce a CIA officer, my father. We both knew her by her alias, Laura Bristow. She was sent orders to kill other agents, one of which was William Vaughn, Vaughn's father. She faked her own death when I was six. I didn't find any of this out until 7 years ago. Which seems like a long time ago, but I've been Mary for six years now. She's been in charge of her own organization for a while now."
"Early this morning I got a call from my contact saying that in Taipei, they were able to capture Derevko. We believe that she may be a leg of SD-6, and the alliance."
"So you guys are like star crossed lovers?"
"Is that all you can think about?" Sydney joked.
"Pretty much. Out of your whole story, that was the coolest thing you said."
"Are you serous? Is that all you care about?" Vaughn asked.
"Hell yah!"
"Kels, do you realize that you won't be able to tell anyone about this? You can barely talk with me about it. I have to have a bug killer going at all times, and I don't carry one with me."
"I do." Vaughn said.
"Yeah, well you still do petty things for the CIA. I swore that I wouldn't. You'll keep this secret, right Kelsey?"
"I promise Mary. Or should I call you Sydney?"
"Mary. Even when we're talking about this. Just so that you don't slip up other times, like Vaughn did."
"So you guys knew each other before the bookshop."
"Yeah. We had been dating for a while."
"How serous were you guys?"
Sydney looked at Vaughn, and smiled.
***Flashback***
Vaughn kissed Sydney tenderly around her collar bone. She groaned with delight, and pulled the blankets to cover more of their bare bodies. The air outside was frigid with winters cruel cold. But underneath the blankets, it was hard to notice. They had made a makeshift bed out of blankets in the warehouse. No, it was no longer the warehouse. It was their warehouse. They met almost nightly. Sometimes for only a short talk. Sometimes for more pleasurable activities.
"How's your arm?" Vaughn whispered as he tenderly kissed the bandage on her shoulder where a knife had grazed it earlier this week.
"Better when you do that." She said.
"I love you Syd. Don't you ever forget that."
"I don't think that is possible. I love you so much."
"Marry me Syd."
"What? A-a-are you p-p-proposing to me?"
"I know it isn't as flashy as Danny's proposal, but I'm not Danny. So what do you say? Sydney Bristow, will you make me the happiest man on Earth, and say that you will love me forever, and marry me?"
Sydney smiled brightly. "How will we pull it off Vaughn? We still can't be in public together."
"We will of course have to wait until SD-6 is gone. But Syd, I love you so much that I can't picture my life without you. The minute you waltzed into the CIA,"
"Oh so now I waltz?"
"Yes, now let me finish wooing you. The minute you waltzed into the CIA with your Bozo red hair, and all full of attitude, I knew that you had stolen my heart, and there was no way I would ever get it back."
"Shhh." Sydney silenced Vaughn with a kiss. "Any more and you won't have a girl friend to woo any more. You'll have melted my heart."
"What do you say Syd?"
"I say yes." Vaughn grinned ear to ear.
"I don't have a ring for you."
"Understandable. I wouldn't be able to wear it."
"But I do have this." Vaughn rolled out from the blankets and onto the concrete floor to retrieve something from his backpack. He then rolled back in. "It's cold out there." He said. "But it's hot with you."
"It was cold without you too."
"Go ahead open it." Sydney pulled the ribbon off of the long black box.
"A pen?" She asked, fully expecting jewelry. She pulled the forest green pen out of the box. Her fingers covered a gold engraving.
"Look closely." Sydney turned the pen around in her fingers, uncovering a small engraving towards the top.
"October 1. Two hearts meet. V&S." Sydney read the inscription on the pen. "That is so sweet. But I won't be able to use this at work."
"It's not meant for work, well, at least not yet."
"What?"
"Look." Vaughn took the pen from Sydney, and began to write on his hand.
"Red ink." She observed.
"For when you get around to grading papers."
"How much longer?"
"I don't know. I also had a tech guy add this." He turned the cap twice around, and the world got silent. Sydney smiled at the silencer.
"A silencer won't do me much good when I want to talk to you." She seductively said.
"John got a little suspicious when I asked for a bug killer for the necklace. So I asked for something different. This was the next best thing."
"A silencer. I'll let you know when I need it."
"That is my engagement ring to you." HE said. "Since I don't have an actual ring, and you can't wear one."
"I love it." Sydney kissed her now fiancé. She put the pen above her head, as the two participated in more entertaining activities (read: spysex.)
***End Flashback***
"Are you telling me that you guys were engaged?" Kelsey asked, as they finished their story.
"I guess we still are." Sydney said. "It's just been a long engagement."
"I'd say so."
"Still need to get you a ring." Vaughn whispered in Sydney's ear.
"I have my pen." She quietly responded.
"A ring is more formal."
"Do you still have that pen?" Kelsey asked.
"Yeah. A student accidentally borrowed it the other day. Thank God she didn't turn on the silencer."
"What exactly is a silencer?"
"Watch." Sydney got up, and rooted through a box, until she produced a long slender black box.
"Is that the pen?"
"Yep." She pulled the pen out, and twisted the lid. Once. She began to scream. Twice. There was no sound, even though her mouth was clearly open, and screaming. Kelsey looked around bewildered. She untwisted the lid once. Her screaming returned. "That is a silencer."
"Wicked."
"You can't tell anyone about anything." Sydney said, as the bug killer began to beep, warning them of thirty seconds left.
"I promise."
"Good because we're out of time." There was one last high tone, before Sydney snatched up the pens. She put them in their places, while she and Vaughn transformed back into Mary and Travis.
"How about to celebrate my new apartment, we do something?" Mary suggested.
"Sounds great." Travis responded.
"What shall we do?" Kelsey asked.
"I don't really care." Mary said, falling into the arms of Travis, who wrapped them around her. Perfectly content with the world, together.
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